Undertale: The Guardian NOW ABANDONED
by deltawulfe
Summary: This is the old, abandoned version of Undertale: The Guardian. This story is being rebooted. Feel free to read through this, but it will no longer be getting updates. The new version should be accessible from my profile soon, if not already.
1. The Guardian

**Author's Note:** _This update came out a bit later than I had originally planned for... But on to more important matters, for those of you who didn't read my message,_ _this_ _chapter_ _and the next have_ _been_ _completely_ _rewritten. I was not proud with how_ _they_ _turned out and didn't want people to be turned away by my initial… I guess 'Lack of Skill' might_ _be correct_ _, though I am by no means skilled in this, I still have much to learn._ _Also, for those of you who are new,_ _for the first several chapters,_ _The Guardian is a bit of a Gary-Stu, but I have hopefully fixed that in the later chapters. Unless I want to rewrite several chapters and not get a new one out for a very long while, it's going to stay like that. Don't judge too harshly, but definitely judge it. Any feedback is welcome._ _I hope you enjoy._

* * *

A man sits in a large room, sunlight pouring in from above. With a cough and a grunt, he stands, surveying his surroundings.

"Where… am I?" He looks up, only to be blinded by the beams of light from the top of the room. Raising his hands to his face, he gets a good look at his unfamiliar body. His eyebrows scrunch together.

" _Who_ am I…?" He pinches the bridge of his nose, searching his mind for information. "No… No, I'm… I'm… The Guardian… I think… Why don't I remember anything?"

He pauses.

"… Wait… I… I think I was supposed to protect someone… But I don't know who…"

His train of thought is derailed when he hears a groan coming from the middle of the room. He looks over and sees a kid laying on the ground, surrounded by golden flowers. He rushes over, checking them for any wounds, but they seem to be unharmed.

 _'Did they fall down? How are they not injured? Are_ they _the one I'm supposed to protect…?'_ The Guardian muses. Looking up, he tries to judge the length of such a fall, but the rays of light are too intense to see the top.

 _'… Maybe…'_

They begin to stir, slowly waking up.

The Guardian instinctively snaps his fingers, his body becoming invisible. He looks down at himself, eyes widened in shock.

"What the-" He stops as the kid slowly sits up, clenching their head and wincing.

 _'What am I…?'_ The Guardian thinks as the kid stands up, looking around. They begin to walk towards an exit. Worried, The Guardian follows.

They reach a door with a strange emblem engraved into the stone above it and they walk through. The Guardian decides to watch them from around the corner.

He sees them stopped, watching a single, small, golden flower in the middle of a dark room. They take a half-step back in shock as it turns around and looks at them, a smile plastered on its face.

"Howdy! I'm Flowey! Flowey the flower!" This time the kid took multiple steps backwards, away from the talking flower. His smile faltered slightly.

"Hmm… You're new to the Underground, aren'tcha?"

They slowly nodded, their expression relaxing slightly.

"Golly, you must be so confused… Someone oughta teach you how things work around here!"

The Guardian narrowed his eyes at the small flower, suddenly suspicious of its motives.

"I guess little old me will have to do." The flower seems a _little_ too excited about this.

"Ready?" The kid is about to shake their head, but Flowey continues anyway. "Here we go!"

Their SOUL floats out in front of them, illuminating them with a red glow. They glance down at it briefly, but continue to stare at Flowey, fright steadily creeping onto their face.

"See that heart? That is your SOUL, the very culmination of your being!" As Flowey is speaking, The Guardian quietly steps into the room, sticking to the shadows. When he finally gets a good look at their SOUL, his eyes widen in shock.

 _'Is… Is that a determination SOUL…?'_ He gawks at the bright red heart glowing in front of them. _'Those are immensely powerful… I never thought I'd get to see one in person. Let alone guard a human with one.'_

"Your SOUL starts off weak, but can grow strong if you gain a lot of LV." The Guardian's attention immediately shifts to the flower at its words.

"What's LV stand for?" Flowey asks for them. "Why, LOVE, of course! You want some LOVE don't you?" The flower doesn't let them answer.

"Don't worry, I'll share some with you!" Flowey winks as five pellets are created around him. "Down here, LOVE is shared through… Little white… 'Friendliness Pellets'."

The Guardian casts Flowey an unseen glare before eying the 'Friendliness Pellets'.

 _'LV isn't something that can be transferred between beings… If they don't dodge, then I'll stop the pellets.'_ A quiet thrum of energy surges through The Guardian as he prepares a magical attack. He watches the kid, waiting for their action when the pellets fly at them. They take a deep breath.

"Are you ready?" After a moment, they slowly nod and Flowey lunches the pellets at them.

"Move around! Get as many as you can!" They watch the pellets with a determined look on their face, dodging at the last second.

"Hey _buddy_ , you missed them." Flowey's frowning slightly.

 _'Heh, I like this kid.'_ The Guardian grins slightly in amusement, but his face quickly returns to being serious when he sees five more pellets appear.

"Let's try again, okay?" He launches the second set at them and they dodge once again. Flowey's frown deepens, anger spreading across his expression.

"Is this a joke? Are you braindead? _Run. Into. The. BULLETS!_ " He pauses before realizing his mistake. "Er… Friendliness Pellets." He launches yet another set of pellets, but the kid dodges again, this time as soon as he fired them.

Flowey's face morphs into a malicious glare and the kid takes a step back. The Guardian begins to slowly and silently walk over to the flower.

" **You know what's going on here, don't you? You just wanted to see me suffer."** They vigorously shake their head, but Flowey ignores their silent plea. He surrounds them in an inescapable ring of pellets.

" **DIE!"** Flowey yells as the ring starts to shrink. The kid crouches down, hiding their face in their knees and trying to make themself smaller. They cry for help.

The Guardian reaches the flower and is about to grab him when a large fireball flies out, seemingly from nowhere, and hits Flowey, knocking him away and barely missing The Guardian. He quickly retreats back into the shadows to avoid being detected as the pellets around the kid disappear.

A large goat-like monster walks into the room, looking for any further danger before seeing the kid sitting in the middle of the room, shoulders bobbing slightly in silent sobs.

"What a terrible creature, torturing such a poor, innocent youth…" She speaks softly and they look up at her, eyes glossy with a few tears running down their cheeks. They shrink slightly at the sight of the large monster. She holds her hands out placatingly.

"Ah, do not be afraid, my child. I am Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins. I pass through this place every day to see if anyone has fallen down." Her soft, motherly tone seems to relax them. She walks over and puts a comforting hand on their shoulder. After a moment, they turn and hug her, wetting her robe with tears.

Slightly startled, Toriel hugs them back, practically enveloping them in her warm fur. After a few moments, accompanied by the occasional sniffle, she pulls away, smiling at them.

"You are the first human to come here in a very long time… Come! I will guide you through the catacombs." Toriel smiles at them, motioning towards the door. "This way."

The kid follows her out of the room, The Guardian not far behind.

The room that they're led to is a large, open room. Dim purple light streams across the staircases at the other end.

The Guardian is surprised to see a small golden star glowing between the stairs.

 _'That's… That's not what I think it is… Is it?'_

He's shocked to see the kid walk right up to it and touch it. The star glows brighter for a second and time seems to pause with it.

 **The shadow of the Ruins looms above, filling** **(̬̻͚͎̗͎̪̞̋̽̎͟N͓͍͍̣̄͠A͑͌͟͏͇̜̝̯̘͈͙̱̼M̵̛̞̼͕͎̭͕̖͔ͯͫEͤ̌̒̿̄͏͎̞̪̤:̢̧͚͇̞̺̖̯͑̂ ̗̦̒ͥͦ́ͮͯ̔͜Ṷ̯̖̜͙͎ͣ͂̈̑́N̰̪̞ͬ̓̈́̽͞͝Ḳ̷͚͚̻̖̳̄́̆̍ͅN̳̗̈̆O͎̮͖̟̯͇̝̺ͨ̂͐ͣ̀̃͠W̧͙̼͚͓͙̽̾ͤ̌̕͢Ń̸̜̩̹̰̹̇̔̿)̢̳̣̜͎͎͎̹̪̿ͪͤͨ̓͟** **with determination.**

They pull their hand away and it dims, darker than it was before. Time resumes and Toriel, strangely, didn't seem to notice anything.

 _'Did they just… SAVE? Heh, I can see now why I'm here… They're the most determined being in this dimension.'_

"Come along, little one." Toriel leads them into a small room, six pressure plates sit on the ground, a switch mounted on the wall next to a door.

"Welcome to your new home, innocent one. Allow me to educate you in the operations of the Ruins." She turns and walks over the four outer plates and flips the switch. The door slides open.

"The Ruins are full of puzzles. Ancient fusions between diversions and door keys. One must solve them to move from room to room. Please adjust yourself to the sight of them." Toriel pauses for a moment before leading them out into the next room, a hallway with multiple switches on the far wall.

"To make progress here, you will need to trigger several switches. Do not worry, I have labeled the ones you need to flip." Toriel swiftly moves to the other end of the room and the kid goes to the first switch, which has an arrow pointing at it, and flips it.

They move to a set of switches, one of which has another arrow. They flip that switch and Toriel claps as a quiet metallic scraping noise can be heard, drawing The Guardian's attention.

"Splendid! I am proud of you, little one. Let us move to the next room." The kid follows her out, but The Guardian pauses at the doorway, looking at the flooring. It's metal, many holes are cut into it. Looking closer, he can see the incredibly sharp tips of…

 _'… Spikes? What the hell are these here for? They could seriously hurt someone.'_ He muses briefly before following them.

"As a human living in the Underground, monsters may attack you. You will need to be prepared for this situation."

"However, worry not! The process is simple. When you encounter a monster, you will enter a FIGHT. While you are in a FIGHT, strike up a friendly conversation. Stall for time. I will come to resolve the conflict." Toriel quickly adds, noticing their worried expression.

"Practice talking to the dummy." She motions toward a practice dummy sitting in the corner.

The kid approaches it, their SOUL floating out once again as they enter a FIGHT. They see four translucent buttons appear in front of them, 'FIGHT', 'ACT', 'ITEM', and 'MERCY'.

They place their hand on 'ACT' and the option 'Dummy' comes up. They select that and are presented with two more options, 'Check' and 'Talk'. They choose 'Talk' and they ask how the dummy's been doing.

… It doesn't seem much for conversation…

 **(̬̻͚͎̗͎̪̞̋̽̎͟N͓͍͍̣̄͠A͑͌͟͏͇̜̝̯̘͈͙̱̼M̵̛̞̼͕͎̭͕̖͔ͯͫEͤ̌̒̿̄͏͎̞̪̤:̢̧͚͇̞̺̖̯͑̂ ̗̦̒ͥͦ́ͮͯ̔͜Ṷ̯̖̜͙͎ͣ͂̈̑́N̰̪̞ͬ̓̈́̽͞͝Ḳ̷͚͚̻̖̳̄́̆̍ͅN̳̗̈̆O͎̮͖̟̯͇̝̺ͨ̂͐ͣ̀̃͠W̧͙̼͚͓͙̽̾ͤ̌̕͢Ń̸̜̩̹̰̹̇̔̿)̢̳̣̜͎͎͎̹̪̿ͪͤͨ̓͟ Won! They earned 0 XP and 0 Gold.**

"Ah, very good! You are very good." Toriel gives them a smile and leads them ahead.

"There is another puzzle in this room… I wonder if you can solve it?" She leads them into a narrow hallway, but doesn't notice a Froggit hop towards the kid, initiating a FIGHT. Their SOUL promptly floating out in front of them, the buttons returning as well.

 **Froggit attacks!**

 **ACT, Froggit, Compliment.**

 **It doesn't seem to understand what they said, but was flattered anyway.**

Toriel rushes over, giving the Froggit a stern look. It shrinks a little under her gaze and hops away.

 **(̬̻͚͎̗͎̪̞̋̽̎͟N͓͍͍̣̄͠A͑͌͟͏͇̜̝̯̘͈͙̱̼M̵̛̞̼͕͎̭͕̖͔ͯͫEͤ̌̒̿̄͏͎̞̪̤:̢̧͚͇̞̺̖̯͑̂ ̗̦̒ͥͦ́ͮͯ̔͜Ṷ̯̖̜͙͎ͣ͂̈̑́N̰̪̞ͬ̓̈́̽͞͝Ḳ̷͚͚̻̖̳̄́̆̍ͅN̳̗̈̆O͎̮͖̟̯͇̝̺ͨ̂͐ͣ̀̃͠W̧͙̼͚͓͙̽̾ͤ̌̕͢Ń̸̜̩̹̰̹̇̔̿)̢̳̣̜͎͎͎̹̪̿ͪͤͨ̓͟ Won! They earned 0 XP and 0 Gold.**

They continue through the hallway and Toriel stops in front of the next puzzle. It is, much to the surprise of the kid and The Guardian, a small bridge of nothing but spikes.

The kid gawks at the large, immensely sharp spikes for a few seconds before tugging on Toriel's robe.

"… This is the next puzzle, but… Here, take my hand for a moment." She reaches a hand out and, after a moment's hesitation, they grab it, eying the dangerous spikes.

She slowly leads them towards the spikes, which retract as she nears, following a zig-zag pattern across. Once across, she turns to face them.

"Puzzles seem a little too dangerous for now…" Toriel leads them into the next room.

Realizing that he's still on the other side of the spikes, The Guardian lets out an annoyed sigh.

"… Ah, hell. I'm not gonna risk getting stabbed. I just hope they don't hear this." He whispers to himself. He slowly snaps his fingers as quietly as possible and a buzzing sensation swirls around his body before he disappears in a flash of light, reappearing at the other side with a whoosh. He winces at the volume, but luckily, it doesn't seem anyone heard him.

The Guardian follows them into the next room, which is a very long, empty hallway that's dimly lit. The end of the room isn't visible.

"You have done excellently thus far, my child." Toriel congratulates them, eliciting a giggle and a smile.

"… However… I have a difficult request to ask of you." Their smile drops almost instantly.

"I would like you to walk to the end of this room by yourself." The kid stares at her, confused, while The Guardian has to keep himself from laughing at her unnecessary tension.

"… Forgive me for this." Toriel swiftly turns, rushing off into the darkness. The kid's expression shifts to one of fear at her words, The Guardian's immediately turning serious.

 _'Ah, crap.'_

The kid takes a few steps forward, waiting for something to suddenly pop out at them. The Guardian prepares his powerful magic, cautiously moving forward…

* * *

 **Author's Note:** _Amusingly, in the first version of this, The Guardian just somehow knew their name at the start. There was no explanation for it and when I realized it, I face-palmed._

… _It hurt._


	2. The Puzzles

**Author's Note:** _As previously stated, this chapter has been rewritten. I'll also be adding a few small changes to the other chapters._

* * *

The Guardian realized his mistake too late… He forgot that his magic makes the air heavier, almost electric with pure energy. The kid immediately stiffened, slowly turning around with eyes full of fear.

The Guardian instantly disables his magic all at once, leaving a sudden light, static feeling.

 _'Damnit!'_ He holds his breath, freezing in place, hoping to make as little noise as possible.

"… W-Who's there…? I-Is someone f-following me…?" The kid speaks slowly, stuttering in their fright. The Guardian mentally curses himself for forgetting such a trivial thing.

After a few silent, tense moments, they reluctantly turn around and start slowly walking towards the end of the hallway. The Guardian waits for them to get out of earshot and into the darkness, then allows himself to become visible again, leaning against a wall with a groan.

"Goddamnit, I can't _do_ that. I can't just prepare that much magic and _not_ use it." He sighs before turning to the side and coughing a strange gold dust.

"… I'm gonna end up killin' myself if I do that too much…"

He snaps his fingers, invisibility returning, and stealthily follows the kid. Luckily, they were walking slowly, so he was easily able to catch up as they neared the end of the room.

There was a strangely placed pillar sitting in the corner. The Guardian raised a brow, but the kid didn't seem to pay it any mind…

… Until they got up to it, anyway.

Toriel casually strolled out from behind the pillar, startling the poor kid.

 _'You have_ got _to be kidding me.'_

"Greetings, my child. Do not worry, I did not leave you. I was merely behind this pillar the whole time." Toriel smiled at them, surprised when they rushed up to her, hugging her.

"Oh, my… Did something happen, my child?" She asks, concerned. They look up at her and nod.

"I… I think s-someone's following u-us…" They speak quietly, as though they don't want anyone else to hear.

"Do not worry, my child. I have not met an unfriendly face here. I am sure you will be fine. In the meantime, I must attend to some business, and you must stay alone for a while. Please remain here. It's dangerous to explore on your own." Noticing their pleading look, she pauses.

"… Here, I have an idea. I will give you a cell phone." She crouched down to try to get down to their height, though she was still taller, and handed them an old flip-phone.

"If you have a need for anything, just call." The kid relaxed a little knowing that they could contact her if anything went wrong… Hopefully.

Toriel stood, giving them a hug.

"Be good, alright?" She turned around and started to walk away, but stopped in the doorway to smile and wave at them before leaving.

Once she was gone, they cautiously turned around to see if anything was actually there. Deciding that they'd rather not stay in the long, creepy, dark hallway, the kid turned on a dime and left the room. The Guardian sighed.

 _'Okay, now I just feel bad… Hopefully I don't do that again.'_

He follows them in time to see them stopped, about to answer their phone. The Guardian listened closely.

"Hello? This is Toriel. You have not left the room, have you? There are a few puzzles ahead that I have yet to explain. It would be dangerous to try and solve them yourself." They pause for a moment, but tell her no.

"Be good, alright?" They say goodbye and hang up.

Suddenly, they notice a Froggit sitting nearby, watching them. It speaks to them… Or ribbits? It's kind of a mix between the two.

" _Ribbit, Ribbit_. Excuse me, human. I have some advice for you about battling monsters. If you ACT a certain way or FIGHT until you almost defeat them… They might not want to battle you anymore." It pauses to let its words sink in.

"If a monster does not want to fight you, please… Use some MERCY, human. _Ribbit_." They nod determinedly and the Froggit hops away.

They turn and walk towards a pile of leaves where another golden SAVE point floats nearby. They play with the leaves for a moment before activating the star.

 **Playfully crinkling through the leaves fills (̬̻͚͎̗͎̪̞̋̽̎͟N͓͍͍̣̄͠A͑͌͟͏͇̜̝̯̘͈͙̱̼M̵̛̞̼͕͎̭͕̖͔ͯͫEͤ̌̒̿̄͏͎̞̪̤:̢̧͚͇̞̺̖̯͑̂ ̗̦̒ͥͦ́ͮͯ̔͜Ṷ̯̖̜͙͎ͣ͂̈̑́N̰̪̞ͬ̓̈́̽͞͝Ḳ̷͚͚̻̖̳̄́̆̍ͅN̳̗̈̆O͎̮͖̟̯͇̝̺ͨ̂͐ͣ̀̃͠W̧͙̼͚͓͙̽̾ͤ̌̕͢Ń̸̜̩̹̰̹̇̔̿)̢̳̣̜͎͎͎̹̪̿ͪͤͨ̓͟ with determination.**

As they're turning away from the SAVE…

 **Whimsun approached meekly!** Their SOUL floats out in front of them.

 **ACT, Whimsun, Console.** The kid gives Whimsun a gentle smile and they begin to speak, but…

 **Halfway through their first word, Whimsun bursts into tears and runs away.**

 **(̬̻͚͎̗͎̪̞̋̽̎͟N͓͍͍̣̄͠A͑͌͟͏͇̜̝̯̘͈͙̱̼M̵̛̞̼͕͎̭͕̖͔ͯͫEͤ̌̒̿̄͏͎̞̪̤:̢̧͚͇̞̺̖̯͑̂ ̗̦̒ͥͦ́ͮͯ̔͜Ṷ̯̖̜͙͎ͣ͂̈̑́N̰̪̞ͬ̓̈́̽͞͝Ḳ̷͚͚̻̖̳̄́̆̍ͅN̳̗̈̆O͎̮͖̟̯͇̝̺ͨ̂͐ͣ̀̃͠W̧͙̼͚͓͙̽̾ͤ̌̕͢Ń̸̜̩̹̰̹̇̔̿)̢̳̣̜͎͎͎̹̪̿ͪͤͨ̓͟ Won! They earned 0 XP and 0 Gold.**

The kid looks down sadly, but they look towards the exit and continue on.

They pass a couple of puzzles and walk through another doorway when their phone rings.

"Hello? This is Toriel. For no reason in particular… Which do you prefer? Cinnamon or butterscotch?" They think long and hard on this, but slowly choose cinnamon.

"Oh, I see. Thank you very much!" She hangs up and they look at their phone, brow raised in slight confusion. Mere seconds later, their phone rings again.

"Hello? This is Toriel." She pauses as the kid giggles a bit.

"You do not dislike butterscotch, do you? I know what your preference is, but… Would you turn up your nose if you found it on your plate?" They tell her no, they enjoy butterscotch.

"Right, right, I understand. Thank you for being patient, by the way." She hangs up.

There's a sign on the wall, the kid walks by it, but The Guardian stops to read it.

'Three out of four gray rocks recommend that you push them.'

 _'Wha- Wait, what? Uh, rocks aren't sentient… Who wrote this?'_ The Guardian is distracted from his confusion by a loud scraping sound. He turns to see the kid pushing a rock onto a pressure plate in the middle of the room.

Once they get it onto the plate, the doorway ahead is cleared of spikes.

 _'Spikes again? What the hell were they trying to keep out?'_

A couple of rooms later, they came across another pressure plate puzzle with more spikes blocking the path, but this time there are three rocks. The first two are easily moved, but the third…

"Whoa there, pardner! Who said you could push me around?" A voice suddenly calls out to the kid, causing them to glance around the room, trying to find the one who spoke.

"Down 'ere." They look down at the rock they were just pushing.

"Huh? O-oh, sorry… C-could you p-please move over there…?" They point towards the pressure plate.

"Hmm, so you're askin' me to move over?" It pauses for a moment.

"Okay, just for you, pumpkin." They don't look comfortable with the nickname, but they try to ignore it. The rock slides about halfway to the plate and stops.

"A l-little more…" They shuffle their feet a little.

"Alrighty, how's this?" The rock moves again, but in the wrong direction.

"N-no, not that way." They look down, feeling bad for telling someone what to do.

"Okay, think I got it." The rock finally slides onto the plate, depressing it and causing the spikes to retract.

The kid approaches the retracted spikes, but before they can walk across, the spikes suddenly shoot up in front of them, startling the poor kid into letting out an embarrassing yelp. They shoot the rock a glare.

"Hmm? You wanted me to stay there?" It pauses. "… You're givin' me a real workout."

From the other side of the room, The Guardian has to keep himself from strolling right up to the damn thing and crushing it as it once again moves onto the plate, hopefully _staying_ there.

The kid very cautiously and slowly walks across the now retracted spikes, eying them.

When they finally get across, they hurry to the next room, visibly relaxing at the sight of another SAVE point. Though they stop when they see a small table with a lone wedge of cheese sitting on it.

They approach a tiny mouse hole in the corner of the room, hearing quiet squeaking from within. They smile a little to themself as they go to SAVE.

 **Knowing the mouse might one day leave its hole and get the cheese… It fills (̬̻͚͎̗͎̪̞̋̽̎͟N͓͍͍̣̄͠A͑͌͟͏͇̜̝̯̘͈͙̱̼M̵̛̞̼͕͎̭͕̖͔ͯͫEͤ̌̒̿̄͏͎̞̪̤:̢̧͚͇̞̺̖̯͑̂ ̗̦̒ͥͦ́ͮͯ̔͜Ṷ̯̖̜͙͎ͣ͂̈̑́N̰̪̞ͬ̓̈́̽͞͝Ḳ̷͚͚̻̖̳̄́̆̍ͅN̳̗̈̆O͎̮͖̟̯͇̝̺ͨ̂͐ͣ̀̃͠W̧͙̼͚͓͙̽̾ͤ̌̕͢Ń̸̜̩̹̰̹̇̔̿)̢̳̣̜͎͎͎̹̪̿ͪͤͨ̓͟ with determination.**

Ahead, the kid stops, staring ahead in confusion as a ghost lies on the ground, eyes closed and saying the letter 'Z' out loud, repeatedly.

"zzzzzzz… zzzzzzz… are they gone yet…? zzzzzzz…" It just lays there, pretending to sleep. A rather poor attempt at that.

The kid politely clears their throat and, after a brief pause, on of the ghost's eyes open slightly and glance at the child before shutting.

They carefully try to walk past, but the ghost slowly floats up, looking at them for a second and blocking their path as they back up. Their SOUL floats out in front of them.

 **Here comes Napstablook.**

 **ACT, Napstablook, Cheer.** They give the ghost a patient smile.

"heh…" Napstablook begins crying tears that fly at the kid. They almost dodge all of them, but the last one grazes their shoulder, sizzling slightly.

 **Napstablook looks just a little bit better.**

 **ACT, Napstablook, Cheer.** They tell Napstablook a little joke.

"heh heh… _really not feeling up to it right now. sorry._ " More acid tears are launched at them, though none of them hit their mark.

 **Cheering seems to have improved Napstablook's mood again.**

 **ACT, Napstablook, Cheer.**

 **Napstablook wants to show them something.**

"let me try…" More acid tears appear, but they float upward instead, forming a neat little top hat on Napstablook's head. "i call it dapper-blook… do you like it…?"

 **Napstablook eagerly awaits their response.**

 **ACT, Napstablook, Cheer.** The kid smiles and nods at him.

"oh, gee… i usually come to the ruins because there's nobody around… but today i met somebody nice… oh, i'm rambling again… i'll get out of your way…" Napstablook fades away as the kid waves at him, still smiling.

As they walk away, they notice a small side room. Investigating, they find a sign, 'Spider bake sale. All proceeds go to real spiders.'

They look into the corner of the room to find a large spiderweb with a small pile of donuts on a plate and a pitcher of something behind it. Many spiders are crawling around, a few approaching the human.

Since the kid never really had a fear of spiders, they thought this was kind of cute.

They search there pockets and, luckily, they find seven gold that they… Don't remember getting…

They quickly replace their confused look with a smile as they crouch down in front of the web, gently placing the gold next to it.

Several spiders crawl out, sliding the gold into the web while several others pick up a donut and carry it out to the kid. They happily take it, thanking the spiders as they slowly stand up, checking around their feet for any tiny spiders.

 _'Well, I'm a surprisingly good pickpocket. Or, I guess that was the opposite.'_ The Guardian thinks as the kid leaves.

Ahead is an 'L' shaped room with three colored switches, one placed in each corner of the room. A sign is near the door, it reads 'The far door is not an exit. It simply marks a rotation in perspective.'

There apparently were spikes blocking the exit, but they're deactivated, so the kid just walks through, but they stop and stare at the room before them in shock…

… It's the same room…

The only differences they can see is that the spikes are activated and the sign isn't here, but it's near the exit. It says 'If you can read this, press the blue switch.'

The blue switch is near the entrance and after pressing it, the spikes retract and they go to the next room.

"Wha- It's the same room again…?" Their confusion is greater this time as they wonder how many of these nearly identical rooms there are.

This time, the sign is right next to them, it says 'If you can read this, press the red switch.'

They activate said switch, which was by the exit, and walk past the now deactivated spikes and into the forth nearly identical room.

"Oh, come on!" They exclaim, clearly frustrated by the repeated puzzles. The new sign is on the far side of the room. It says 'If you can read this, press the green switch'. It was to their left. They pressed it and walked ahead, fully suspecting another one.

Thankfully, they found a different, 'T' shaped room. They sigh.

"… What was _with_ those four 'L' shaped… Rooms…" They pause.

"… Wait a minute… Doesn't four of those make a square…? Why is…" They jog back to the first room, looking out of the entrance to find a different room than they were just in. They study the floor, no inclines, no stairs, just a square that loops back in on itself, but also doesn't…

"… What?"

Continuing on, they walk past the 'T' room into a very small room with a Froggit. It approaches them.

" _Ribbit, ribbit._ Just between you and me… I saw Toriel come out of here just a little while ago. She was carrying some groceries. I didn't ask what they were for… We're all too intimidated to talk to her. _Ribbit._ " The kid stares for a second before chuckling slightly.

"I-Intimidated? Why? She's so nice." When the Froggit doesn't respond and they realize that it's serious, they look down, a little embarrassed.

"O-Oh, you were… Serious… S-sorry."

They awkwardly shuffle into the next room, where they're greeted by a view of a town. There's a small, plastic, toy knife on the ground nearby, but they don't even glance at it before leaving.

Past the 'T' room, they find a large opening with a strangely black tree in the middle. A house sits at the far end.

As they are looking at the tree, Toriel walks out of the door and takes out her phone, preparing to call the kid as they walk out towards her.

"Oh dear, that took longer than I thought it would." She looks up as she puts her phone to her ear but stops as she notices them.

"Oh my! How did you get here, my child? Are you hurt?" She walks up to them, hugging them.

Until now, they had completely forgotten their burn from one of Napstablook's acid tears. They nod as Toriel pulls away and they show the burn on their shoulder to her.

"There, there, I will heal you." She gently places a large, furry hand on their burn. They flinch and hiss through their teeth. She pulls back slightly, giving them an apologetic look.

Replacing her hands on their shoulder, her hands beginning to glow a bright light green with healing magic.

The burn vanishes as an amazingly warm, tingly feeling rushes through them and they practically melt into her hand. They sigh contentedly and, unable to resist, they give Toriel another big hug…

Or, well, as big of a hug as their small body can give, anyway.

"I should not have left you alone for so long." Toriel pulls away slightly to look at them.

"It was irresponsible of me to try and surprise you like this." At her words, they gasp excitedly and pull away, a big grin on their face.

"A… S-Surprise? For… For me?" They ask, their grin threatening to split their face in half.

"Err… Well, I suppose I cannot hide it any longer. Come, small one!" They follow her to the house, not walking so much as bouncing. They're a little surprised when she suddenly stops half-way to the door, turning back to them with a slightly embarrassed look on her face.

"Um… Oh my, this is a little awkward… I'm sorry, but I don't believe I've asked you your name." a light shade of red is barely visible on her face.

The kid's face flushes, obviously equally embarrassed for not telling her their name anyway. They shuffle their feet, looking downward.

"O-Oh… It's, um, F-Frisk…"

"Frisk? My, what a wonderful name." Toriel smiles at them, earning a weak smile from Frisk.

 _'Frisk, huh? I like it.'_

Though they stop before entering, seeing a SAVE point by the door. Quickly, they use it before entering.

 **Seeing such a cute, tidy house in the Ruins fills (̸̴͕ͭ̈͌̇̒̌̃͝N̵͉̤͚͉̥̰ͭ͋̽À̡͚͙͍̏͛̈͂̏͊̉M̸͗ͭ̿̽͒̍̚҉̗Ḛ͙ͩ̅͐͠:͕̥̯̃̆͆͆́̇̆̈ ̶̼͈̬̰͕̺̞̮̑ͥ̃̑͟R̉͑̀̍̓͐҉̧̯̤̞̰̰͔͔̤̀Ȩͧ̃̐̿͜҉͉͎̺̱C̶̞̞̘̬̝͍̾̀ͮͬ̈́Ò̷̷̯̖̙̭̯̩̻̔ͣǴŃ̋͏̴̫͔̣͇͉͇͉Ȋ͏̛͏͖Z̵͇̥̏ͩ͒̄͗́̾E̜͇̞̫̫͔̓̅ͪ͆̋ͩ̎̎̅͡͞D͇̘̠̝̤ͧͯ̀ͦ͗ͯ̀͘͞)ͦ̆͑ͮ͑** **Frisk** **with determination.**

When they walk through the door, they're greeted by the smell of… Pie?

"Do you smell that? Surprise! It is a Butterscotch-Cinnamon Pie." The Guardian stands in the corner, arms crossed and his face scrunched in frustration as Frisk can't be happier.

 _'Damn, I really want some of that. Haven't had pie in decades… I think.'_

"I thought we might celebrate your arrival." Toriel smiles fondly at them.

"I want you to have a nice time living here. So I will hold off on snail pie for tonight." The Guardian suddenly doesn't want pie quite as much.

"Here, I have another surprise for you." She takes their hand, leading them down a hallway to the right and to the first door.

"This is it… A room of your own. I hope you like it!" Frisk seems to realize just how tired they are. Toriel seems to notice and ruffles their hair, opening her mouth to say something, but she then sniffs the air, looking towards the kitchen. A slight panic flashes across her face.

"Is something burning…? Um, make yourself at home!" She quickly rushes off, presumably to check on the pie.

Frisk walks into the room, not really bothering to look around before flopping face-first onto the bed. The Guardian slinks in behind them, moving to the opposite corner and quietly sitting down. Both fall asleep shortly after.

A few hours later, Frisk suddenly bolts upright, hyperventilating. They awoke from a nightmare and, not wanting to think about it, they swing their legs over the side of the bed, standing up and suddenly realizing that they slept in their clothes, shoes and all.

Sighing, they groggily run a hand through their hair, glancing at the center of the room before doing a double-take. A single slice of pie sits on a plate with a fork. They slowly pick it up, carrying it back to the bed.

They smile before taking a bite, unprepared for the pure butterscotch-cinnamon bliss. Fueled by the first bite, Frisk ravenously inhales the rest of the slice.

They visibly sink a little once it's gone though. They had forgotten to savor it. They sink a little more when they remember what they have to do.

As The Guardian still sleeps in the corner, they step out of their room, fixing their hair as they walk towards the living room. Toriel is sitting in a large, soft chair in front of a fireplace, reading a book. She quickly notices Frisk wander in and, marking her page in the book, she sets it in her lap and smiles at them.

"Up already, I see? Um, I want you to know how glad I am to have someone here. There are so many old books I want to share." Every sentence makes Frisk feel worse about what they must do, but they have to stay determined.

"I want to show you my favorite bug-hunting spot. I've also prepared a curriculum for your education. This may come as a surprise to you… But I have always wanted to be a teacher… Actually, perhaps that isn't very surprising. _Still_. I am glad to have you living here. Oh, did you want something? What is it?" Frisk shuffles a little, looking down at their feet.

"When… W-When can I go… H-Home?" They mumble. Toriel looks shocked.

"W-What? This… This _is_ your home now. Um… Would you like to hear about this book I am reading? It is called '72 Uses for Snails'. How about it?" Frisk can feel their determination wavering slightly, but they keep going.

"H-How do I… Exit t-the Ruins…?" Toriel doesn't seem to know what to do, so she tries to say something to make them laugh… At least a little.

"Um… Did you know snails make horrible shoelaces?" She has a small, strained smile that gets wiped when they don't even chuckle. They ask her once again, but with a little more confidence.

"How do I exit the R-Ruins?"

Toriel pauses for a few brief moments, before taking off her reading glasses and letting out a long sigh.

"… I have to do something. Stay here." She quickly stands up and rushes out of the room. Frisk follows her, only to see her moving down the stairs that they barely even noticed until now. They follow her down the stairs to see her stopped in the middle of a long, dark corridor.

"You wish to return 'home', do you not? Ahead of of lies the end of the Ruins. A one-way exit to the rest of the Underground. I am going to destroy it. No one will ever be able to leave again. Now be a good child and go upstairs." Frisk, now full of more determination, presses on, following her further.

"Every human that falls down here meets the same fate. I have seen it again and again. They come. They leave. They die." A chill up Frisk's spine makes them shudder, but they ignore it.

"You naive child… If you leave the Ruins… They… **Asgore** … Will kill you. I am only protecting you, do you understand?"

"… Go to your room."

* * *

The Guardian awakes, alone in Frisk's room. Confused, he stands and glances around, walking out into the rest of the house, searching each room.

After he couldn't find anyone, he became visible again, as nobody could see him anyway.

He paces near the entryway, panic starting to rise in his chest. That is, until he started to hear some commotion from downstairs. Quickly, he reaches the bottom in time to see Frisk walking around the corner at the end of the long corridor. He runs down after them, getting close enough to hear Toriel speaking. He slows down to listen.

"You want to leave so badly? Hmph. You are just like the others. There is only one solution to this. Prove yourself… Prove to me you are strong enough to survive."

 _'… Oh shit.'_

The Guardian sprints down the hall just as Frisk backs up into view, their SOUL in front of them with a bright orange glow ahead.

As The Guardian nears, they shut their eyes and throw their arms in front of their face in a vain attempt to block whatever's coming. He skids to a halt in front of them, catching a fireball in his hand.

Frisk opens their eyes to see The Guardian's arm holding a ball of fire less than a foot from their face.

The Guardian clenches his hand around the fireball, causing it to swirl up his arm and be absorbed into his chest. He turns to glare at Toriel.

 **"I am The Guardian... And you _WILL NOT HARM THEM!_ "**

* * *

 **Author's Note:** _Yay! Now I can stop referring to Frisk as 'The Kid', since that's already getting old. There have been minor changes to chapter three, not as much as I had planned, but I think it works._


	3. The Forest

**Author's Note:** _I'll_ _be_ _leav_ _ing_ _The Guardian's appearance up to interpretation, for the most part anyway,_ _but_ _he is male and appears to be human._

* * *

Both Frisk and Toriel are shocked to see this person appear from nowhere and absorb the fire ball. The Guardian moves to stand in front of Frisk protectively and prepares his magic, surrounding his entire body in massive amounts of magical energy.

Toriel's magic immediately dissipates and she takes a step back in shock as his eyes shift from glowing green pupils, to completely black with blood red pupils that stare into her SOUL.

 **"I have been watching… Both of you… Throughout the Ruins from when Frisk** **first** **fell down. I understand your concerns, Toriel.** **But I shall protect them from any and all who seek to destroy them. Now… You shall let us pass through into the rest of the underground."**

The Guardian calms his magic and the powerful energy around him disperses, leaving a tingly feeling in the air. His eyes return to normal and he turns around and looks at Frisk.

"I apologize for not revealing myself earlier, Frisk. I shall explain up ahead. I did not scare you, did I?" Frisk slowly nods at him. "Oh my, I'm sorry. I did not mean to make you afraid of me, I was acting out of instinct. Are you alright?" He reaches out to them, but they take a step away from him.

"It's alright, I understand. That was a rather… startling sight for someone who's barely seen magic. If you wish, I could keep my distance for now. But I would like to explain to you I am first. I am The Guardian, a being of god-like power. My past isn't well known, even to me. But what I think is that I was sent to this dimension to protect… Someone. I believe that person is you, Frisk. My transfer left me with some form of amnesia, so I don't know where I come from or even my name, 'The Guardian' is just my title."

He looks back over at Toriel, who is backed against the wall with a frightened expression. "Are… Are you alright? I can be pretty scary, even when I don't truly mean it. I apologize if I have harmed you, the sheer amount of magic I have can sometimes damage monsters, even without me attacking. Here..." He moves his arm toward Toriel and his hand glows a brilliant shade of green, causing Toriel to levitate a few inches and glow the same green. "Oh, good. I have not harmed you." he says as Toriel is placed back on the ground and the green magic dissipates.

"What… Was that? My child, are you alright?" says Toriel as she rushes over to Frisk to hug them.

"That was my healing magic, It is rather powerful." The Guardian explains.

Toriel looks back at him with a confused expression, "How do you have magic? And how is it so powerful? Aren't you a human?"

The Guardian looks up thoughtfully, "Hmm… That is not easy to explain, especially with my amnesia, but I'll say this: I am not human. Well… not entirely, I am… But also not… My body is of a human, but my SOUL is not. My SOUL is stronger than any SOUL in existence. Just showing it to you would release such intense magic that it would kill anything nearby and weaken anything any further… It's so powerful, I can't even contain it in my body without it ripping me to shreds. So I've created a pocket dimension that is connected to my physical form and can hold my SOUL and still let me use the magic from it."

"But anyways, Frisk, we ought to get going. There is still much to do in the Underground. But I will return you to the surface, I promise." Frisk turns to Toriel and hugs her tight,

"If you truly wish to leave the Ruins… I will not stop you. However, when you leave… Please do not come back. I hope you understand." She hugs them again, both on the verge of tears, "Goodbye, my child." She starts to walk away, but stops in the hallway, looking back and saying nothing. Then turning back and walking to the house.

The Guardian looks to Frisk. "Let us continue on, Frisk. We should get to know each other better." Frisk looks up at him sadly, then nods. He puts a reassuring hand on their back. "It'll be alright, Frisk. It'll get better."

They push open the large door in the room and walk through the very long hallway ahead. The next room is dark, with a small patch of grass in the middle with a certain yellow flower on it.

"Clever. Verrrryyy clever. You think you're really smart, don't you? In this world, it's kill or be killed."

The Guardian speaks up, "We _don't_ kill, and we certainly won't _be_ killed either."

"You…Who… _What_ are you…?" says Flowey, clearly not expecting a second person.

"Oh, so you saw that, didn't you? Heh, I am The Guardian, the protector of Frisk. And I already don't trust you, I can tell that you don't mean well… So let me give you some advice, _flower…_ **Don't. Hurt. Frisk…** If you do… Well, you wouldn't want to get on my bad side, now would you…?" Flowey's stem started shaking and he quickly ducked underground. "Let's keep going, Frisk."

They push open the large stone doors and step out into startlingly cold forests. The Guardian looks over at Frisk to see that they're shivering, clearly not prepared for the cold.

"It's rather cold here… Here, I have an idea." He snaps his fingers and suddenly the both of them have dim red force fields surrounding their bodies. Frisk immediately stops shivering and looks astonished. "These are what I call 'Heat Shields', should keep the air within them at a comfortable temperature. Oh, and they should become invisible, so nobody thinks humans can suddenly use magic." Frisk thanks him as the shielding vanishes.

"We seem to be in a forest, I hope we can find a- Wait a second. What is _that_?" There's a bush next to them where he sees a small glint of light. As he approaches, he realizes that it's a camera. "What is this doing here? Is someone watching the doors- Oh no… Welp, we better hope no one was watching when I did _that_. I'm just gonna..." He says as he turns the camera around so it's facing away from them. "Anyways, let's continue on."

As they walk through the pathway in the forest, they pass a fallen branch on the path which they pay no attention to. Once they're a short distance away, they hear a loud _SNAP!_ Frisk nearly jumps out of their skin, while The Guardian slowly turns around with a stoic expression.

"Look, I know you're following us. Come on out." When nothing makes so much as a sound, his eyes suddenly switch from green, to white, which allows him to have night-vision and thermal-tracking capabilities. Nothing. "Hmm… Well, somebody's rather quick, got right out of here. Let's keep moving."

After a minute or so of walking, someone rolls between two trees. While Frisk barely catches it, The Guardian looks over slightly before it even happened, both clearly hearing it anyways.

"Okay, could ya be any more obvious? You aren't fooling anyone." Still, nobody. "Hmm…" He turns to Frisk, who looks terrified of the mysterious monster. "It's alright, Frisk. I'll protect us from anyone with hostile intentions." They continue walking until they come across a bridge with a gate that's too wide to stop anyone.

They stopped because they started to hear heavy footsteps just slightly after their own. The footsteps come closer and closer until _something_ is right behind them.

" **Human** **s**."Frisk tenses up at the deep voice, while The Guardian does nothing for the moment. " **Don't you know how to greet a new pal? .** " When Frisk doesn't turn around, The Guardian does, giving the monster his most stoic face. He then gives the monster a strong handsha- _PPBFFFT!_ Startled, The Guardian suddenly clenched his his hand almost painfully around the monster's and his eyes flashed red… Before realizing that it was just a whoopee cushion in its hand… And Frisk was giggling next to them.

"heheh… the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick. it's _always_ funny." The Guardian relaxed and chuckled a bit at his own reaction. "anyways, you're humans, right?" Both Frisk and The Guardian nodded.

"that's hilarious. i'm sans. sans the skeleton. i'm actually supposed to be on watch for humans right now." The Guardian showed no reaction, but prepared his magic.

"but… y'know… i don't really care about capturing anybody." Relaxing and chuckling, The Guardian calms his magic again. "now my brother, papyrus… he's a human-hunting _fanatic_. hey, actually, i think that's him over there." Both the human and the 'human' tensed up at that. "i have an idea. go through this gate thingy. yeah, go right through. my bro made the bars too wide to stop anyone."

The three of them walked into an opening with a lamp, some piles of snow, and a small stand. "Quick, behind that conveniently-shaped lamp." The Guardian watches Frisk go behind the lamp. "you can hide behind my station if you want."

"Actually, I've got a better idea." sans looks at him in confusion as he snaps his fingers and he turns invisible. Sans takes a half-step back in shock and is still a bit startled when papyrus arrives. "s-sup, bro?"

"YOU KNOW WHAT'S 'SUP' BROTHER! IT'S BEEN EIGHT DAYS AND YOU STILL HAVEN'T RECALIBRATED. YOUR. PUZZLES! YOU JUST HANG AROUND OUTSIDE YOU STATION! WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING?!" "staring at this lamp. it's really cool. do you wanna look?" Papyrus starts stomping like a child.

"NO! I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THAT! WHAT IF A HUMAN COMES THROUGH HERE!? I WANT TO BE READY! I WILL BE THE ONE! I MUST BE THE ONE! I WILL CAPTURE A HUMAN! THEN, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL GET ALL THE THINGS I UTTERLY DESERVE! RESPECT… RECOGNITION… I WILL FINALLY BE ABLE TO JOIN THE ROYAL GUARD! PEOPLE WILL ASK, TO, BE MY, 'FRIEND?' I WILL BATHE IN A SHOWER OF KISSES EVERY MORNING."

The Guardian only needs one look to see that Frisk is trying really hard not to burst into laughter. And honestly, he's trying not to chuckle at the overly-enthusiastic skeleton himself. "hmm… maybe this lamp will help you."

"SANS! YOU ARE NOT HELPING! YOU LAZYBONES! ALL YOU DO IS SIT AND BOONDOGGLE! YOU GET LAZIER AND LAZIER EVERY DAY!" "hey, take it easy. i've gotten a _ton_ of work done today. a skele- _ton._ " he says as he winks and shrugs. "SANS!" "come on. you're smiling." "I AM AND I HATE IT!" he sighs and he holds his head in his hand.

"WHY DOES SOMEONE AS GREAT AS ME HAVE TO DO SO MUCH JUST TO GET SOME RECOGNITION…?" "wow, sounds like you're really working yourself…" Papyrus glares at him. "down to the _bone._ "

Papyrus throws his hands up. "UGH! I WILL ATTEND TO MY PUZZLES… AS FOR YOUR WORK? PUT A LITTLE MORE _BACKBONE_ INTO IT! NYEH-HEH-HEH-HEH!" Papyrus starts to walk away, but turns around and, "HEH!", then turns back and walks away.

"okay, you can come out now." he says before Frisk walks up to him from the lamp and The Guardian becomes visible again.

"Well, he certainly is… Enthusiastic..." says The Guardian.

"welp, that's my bro for ya, he's pretty cool… but uh… how did you do that? i thought humans didn't have magic anymore."

The Guardian thinks for a minute, "Well, I'm not exactly… human. I'm much more powerful. It's a long story, I'll explain it to you another time. Oh, that reminds me, I haven't given you my name. Well, my _title_ , since I don't remember my name, but that's beside the point. I am The Guardian, the protector of this little human here." he says as he ruffles their hair, eliciting some giggles.

"well, anyways, you oughta get going, he might come back. and if he does, you'll have to sit through more of my hilarious jokes." "Alright Sans, we'll see you up ahead, I guess. Come on Frisk." As the two of them walk away, sans speaks up again, "actually, hey… hate to bother ya, but could you do me a favor?"

The Guardian turns around to look at him, "Yeah, sure. What is it?"

"i was thinking… my brother's been kind of down lately… he's never seen a human before, and seeing you might just make his day. don't worry, he's not dangerous. even if he tries to be."

The Guardian nods at him, "Yeah, of course. Besides, even if something does happen, I'll stop him." Sans gives him a look, "Relax, I wouldn't hurt him, just temporarily stop him from being able to attack. It's harmless."

"heh, alright. thanks a million, i'll be up ahead." he says as he walks away toward the door to the Ruins. Frisk looks back in confusion and The Guardian just shrugs.

"Alright, let's go meet Papyrus."


	4. The Great Papyrus

**Author's Note:** _Due to a glitch in chapter 3's uploading, some of sans' text was missing, hopefully it is fixed now, I apologize for that_ _and the late chapter, I was at SxSW and didn't have much time during the weekend._

* * *

Up ahead was a SAVE point, and Frisk pretended like it wasn't there, not knowing that The Guardian could see them too.

"Frisk, you don't have to ignore the SAVE points. I know about your power." They were genuinely surprised to hear that. "I saw you use one in the Ruins, while I was watching from the shadows. Err… That sounded a lot less creepy in my head, but I was watching, I was invisible, but there." Frisk was giggling at that. "Anyways, you should go SAVE, just in case." Frisk nods and moves to the bright yellow four-pointed star.

 **(The convenience of that lamp still fills you with DETERMINATION)**

They head north and find a river with a fishing pole sitting at the side with a line in the water. Frisk reels it in and finds a photo of a weird looking monster with a message, 'Call me! Here's my number!'. Frisk decides not to call. They go back south and start to head east when they see a strange box with a sign, it reads "This is a box, you can put an item inside or take an item out, the same box will appear later, so don't worry about coming back. Sincerely, a box lover."

"Hey, I think that's a dimensional box. We should find more of them, but they'll have the same items inside each one." says The Guardian as he opens the box. "Oh, hey, there's a pair of gloves in here, might be nice." He hands them to Frisk, who accepts them with a nod. "Alright, let's keep moving."

"SO, AS I WAS SAYING ABOUT UNDYNE," they hear as Papyrus and sans come into view. Papyrus looks over first, then turns back as sans looks over, then he looks back as Papyrus looks over, and it keeps repeating until both of them are spinning insanely fast. After a few seconds, they both suddenly stop, facing away from them.

"SANS! OH MY GOD! ARE THOSE… HUMANS!?" They both turn back to the human and Guardian.

"uhhhh… actually, i think that's a rock." Both Frisk and The Guardian turn around to see a rock on the path behind them. "OH." said a disappointed Papyrus. A deafening _smack!_ echoed through the forest as The Guardian face-palmed with the strength of a wrecking ball.

Frisk and sans stared at him for a moment, before sans continued. "hey, what's that in front of the rock?"

Papyrus turns back to look at them. "OH MY GOD!" He turns back to sans, 'whispering' "ARE… ARE THOSE HUMANS?"

"yes."

"OH MY GOD! SANS! I FINALLY DID IT! UNDYNE WILL-… I'M GONNA-… I'LL BE SO-… POPULAR! POPULAR! POPULAR!… 'AHEM'" He didn't even clear his throat, he just said 'ahem'. "HUMANS! YOU SHALL NOT PASS THIS AREA! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL STOP YOU! I WILL THEN CAPTURE YOU! YOU WILL BE DELIVERED TO THE CAPITAL! THEN… THEN!… I'M NOT SURE WHAT'S NEXT… IN ANY CASE! CONTINUE… ONLY IF YOU DARE! NYEH-HEH-HEH-HEH!" He yells as he jogs off to somewhere.

"well, that went well. don't sweat it, kids. i'll keep an eyesocket out for ya." sans says as he walks off towards Papyrus. After a short while, Frisk asks if his face is okay. "Yep, it's fine. Sorry about that. Let's move on." They came across another station, similar to the one sans had, but made of cardboard, for whatever reason.

There was a sign on the front that said, "YOU OBSERVE THE WELL-CRAFTED SENTRY STATION. WHO COULD HAVE BUILT THIS, YOU PONDER… I BET IT WAS THAT VERY FAMOUS ROYAL GUARDSMAN! (NOTE: NOT YET A VERY FAMOUS ROYAL GUARDSMAN.)"

"Well, that's certainly… something. Why would this be built out of cardboard? And where did a box that big come from…?" The Guardian sighs, "You know what, nevermind."

Just up ahead is yet another station, with a sign nearby that says, "Absolutely NO MOVING!". As they walk past, a dog monster pops up from underneath the counter.

"Did something move? Was it my imagination? I can only see moving things. If something _was_ moving… for example, a human… I'll make sure it never moves again!" The monster vaults over the counter and takes out two swords. Frisk's SOUL floats out in front of them.

 **Doggo blocks the way!** MERCY, Spare. "Don't move an inch!" Doggo says as a magical blue sword flies at them and Frisk instinctively tries to move, but The Guardian holds them still. The sword passes straight through the both of them. **Doggo can't seem to find anything.** The Guardian takes this opportunity and blinks behind Doggo and pets him.

"WHAT!? I'VE BEEN PET!" Doggo says as another blue sword flies at Frisk. This time, they stay completely still and the blade passes through them. MERCY, Spare.

 **YOU WON! You earned 0 XP and 30 Gold.**

Doggo jumps back behind the counter and The Guardian blinks back next to Frisk.

"S-S-S-Something pet me… Something that isn't m-m-moving… I'm gonna need some dog treats for this!" Says Doggo as he ducks back under the counter. Several feet from the station, on the ground, is a couple of dog treats, one charred and with ashes around it, as if someone was smoking it. They move on and find sans next to a bunch of ice.

"hey, here's something important to remember. my brother has a very **special attack**. if you see a blue attack, don't move and they won't hurt you."

"Ah, yes, I am familiar with that type of magic. I'm not a fan of it, as there's always _some_ way to dodge it. I had to stop Frisk from trying to move out of the way, but they got it pretty quick." Said The Guardian. Noticing sans' confused look, he continued, "We had to FIGHT Doggo, he used that magic."

"oh, alright. you didn't…?"

"Wha-? No, no, he's fine. A little shaken, but fine." The Guardian reassured. "shaken? why?" "Neither of us moved, so he couldn't see us, and I teleported behind him and pet him. He never saw it coming." sans' eyes widened and his smile faltered. "What? I can turn invisible, so why shouldn't I be able to teleport?" He walks up to sans and whispers to him, "You aren't the only one with that ability."

Judging by the confused look on Frisk's face, they didn't hear what he said. And looking at sans' expression, eyes widened and smile gone, he genuinely didn't expect him to know that, especially not someone who just met him. The Guardian clapped his hands together, "Well, we'll see you up ahead." He waved to sans and started walking away, Frisk following, leaving sans to himself. They head north and com across a snowman at a cliff-side.

Much to their surprise, it turns to them, "Hello. I am a snowman." Frisk awkwardly waves at him. "I want to see the world… But I cannot move. If you would be so kind, travellers, please… Take a piece of me and bring it very far away."

The Guardian looks to Frisk, who gives him a pleading look. "Hmm… Alright, snowman, we shall take a piece of you with us on our journey." He carefully takes a chunk of snow from him and holds it in his hands, then a blue shield begins to envelope the snow, before disappearing. "And now, it shall never melt."

"Thank you… Good luck!"

As they walk away, Frisk asks The Guardian what he did to the snow, "I used an altered version of the heat shield that will keep it frozen." They head to the east and find a flattened square of snow with sans and Papyrus on the other side.

"YOU'RE SO LAZY! YOU WERE NAPPING ALL NIGHT!"

"i think that's called… sleeping."

"EXCUSES, EXCUSES!" It's then that Papyrus notices the two watching them. "OH-HO! THE HUMANS ARRIVE! IN ORDER TO STOP YOU… MY BROTHER AND I HAVE CREATED SOME PUZZLES! I THINK YOU WILL FIND THIS ONE… QUITE SHOCKING! FOR YOU SEE, THIS IS THE INVISIBLE ELECTRICITY MAZE! WHEN YOU TOUCH THE WALLS OF THIS MAZE, THIS ORB WILL ADMINISTER A HEARTY ZAP!" The Guardian notices that he still has the orb in his hand. "SOUND LIKE FUN? BECAUSE! THE AMOUNT OF FUN YOU WILL PROBABLY HAVE… IS ACTUALLY RATHER SMALL, I THINK. OK, YOU CAN GO AHEAD NOW."

The Guardian turns to Frisk and whispers, so neither skeleton can hear. "I got this, I can see the maze walls." he says as his eyes flash blue. He turns back towards the maze, "Alright, here go's nothing." He shrugs and takes a step forward, intentionally walking into one of the maze's walls, causing the orb to shock Papyrus.

"SANS! WHAT DID YOU DO!?"

"i think the human has to hold the orb."

"OH, OKAY." He walks over to us through the maze, "HOLD THIS PLEASE!" After handing the orb to The Guardian, he runs back to where he was. "OKAY, TRY NOW!" The Guardian turns back to Frisk and takes their hand.

"Follow me closely, Frisk." They nod and he leads them through the maze with no problem.

"INCREDIBLE! YOU SLIPPERY SNAIL! YOU SOLVED IT SO EASILY… TOO EASILY! HOWEVER! THE NEXT PUZZLE WILL NOT BE EASY! IT IS DESIGNED BY MY BROTHER SANS! YOU WILL SURELY BE CONFOUNDED! I KNOW I AM! NYEH-HEH-HEH-HEH!"

Once Papyrus is out of earshot, sans asks The Guardian, "how did you do that?" Sans glances towards where Papyrus went.

"I can see the walls, with these." The Guardian points at his eyes just as he shows sans the blue color.

"just how many abilities _do_ you have?" sans asks in shock.

"Even I don't know. I just seem to remember them as I need to use them. But truly? Too many to list." After a moment of awkward silence, sans somehow clears his throat.

"welp, anyways, thanks… my brother seems like he's having fun."

"Well, good, I'm glad." The Guardian replies with a small smile.

"oh, by the way, did you see that weird outfit he's wearing?"

The Guardian pictures it, "Oh yeah, that is a bit weird. Though that's never a bad thing."

"heh, we made that a few weeks ago for a costume party. he hasn't worn anything else since..."

The Guardian tilts his head slightly and narrows his eyes, "Uh… Okay, I could understand wearing it for patrol or something, but _all the time_? Well… He can do what he wants, I guess."

"yeah, heh. He keeps calling it his 'battle body'. man, isn't my brother cool?"

Up ahead, they see a small ice cream stand with a rather sad looking bunny monster next to it. The Guardian turns to Frisk, "Hey, you want to get some ice cream? I know it's not exactly cold in the shielding." he whispers that last part. Frisk nods excitedly, "Alright, let's get you some." Frisk asks if he's going to get any, "I don't really have much of a sweet tooth. Now come on." He replies with a chuckle.

As they walk up to the monster, they hear him muttering to himself, "I don't understand why these aren't selling… It's the perfect weather for something cold..." He glances up and sees the two watching him with slightly confused looks and immediately perks up. "Oh! A customer! Hello! Would you like some Nice Cream? It's the frozen treat that warms your heart! Now just 15G!"

The Guardian puts a hand on Frisk's back, "Well, go on, you've got all the gold, pick out what you want." Frisk nods and asks for a chocolate Nice Cream, handing 15G to the bunny.

He gladly takes it and grabs a chocolate Nice Cream from his cart, "Here you go! Have a super-duper day!" he says handing it to Frisk. They thank him and the two continue through the forest, Frisk putting the Nice Cream away for later.

As they cross a small bridge, they find another opening with sans on the other side.

They approach him and he says, "i've been thinking about selling treats too. want some fried snow? it's just 5G."

The Guardian gives him a confused look, "Okay, first, how can you even _make_ fried snow? It'd melt before it fried and just boil away. And second… Sure, I'll bite."

They start to take out the money, but the skeleton stops them, "did i say 5G? i meant 50G."

The Guardian gives him a look, one eyebrow raised, before he realizes what he's doing. With a chuckle, he seemingly takes out 50G from nowhere. "Sure, why not?"

Sans is a little surprised, "really? how about 5000G?" Again, from seemingly nowhere, The Guardian takes out another 4950G.

"Alright."

Both Frisk and sans are staring at the money before sans continues, "50000G. that's my final offer." The Guardian then snaps his fingers and the pile of gold floats up and splits into ten identical piles.

"welp, that's a lot of money. i dunno where you got it from, but it doesn't matter, i don't actually have any snow."

The Guardian shrugs at him, "Eh, that's fine. I don't actually have any money, anyways." He snaps his fingers again and the gold seems to flicker out of existence. "They were fake." He says before turning on a dime and walking away, Frisk following.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** _Yes, I know I didn't mention the trail that Papyrus leaves in the invisible electricity maze, but that's because in this story, he doesn't_ _leave one._ _Also, I need to come up with a nickname for The Guardian. I feel like I've said 'The Guardian' way too much and it's bothering me. If anyone can help come up with something, PM me._


	5. Skeletal Pu(n)zzles

**Author's Note:** _Sorry if I end up making some errors in any chapters, I've_ _already_ _had to go back and correct a few. It's my first fanfiction, so please excuse my occasional stupidity, heh._

* * *

After they left the dumbfounded skeleton, they found sans and Papyrus up ahead, a small piece of paper on the ground. After Frisk checked to make sure sans wasn't somehow multiplying, the brothers noticed them.

"HUMANS! I HOPE YOU'RE READY FOR… SANS! WHERE'S THE PUZZLE!?"

"it's right there. on the ground. trust me. there's no way they can get past this one." Frisk and The Guardian walk up to the paper and notice that it's a word search. After glancing at the paper, The Guardian almost immediately saw a problem. He was supposed to look for 'giasfclf _e_ brehber', but could only find 'giasfclf _u_ brehber'. After explaining the problem to Frisk, they both shared a laugh before The Guardian placed the puzzle back on the ground and walked past it.

"SANS! THAT DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!"

"whoops. i knew i should have used today's crossword instead."

Papyrus stared at him in disbelief, "WHAT!? CROSSWORD!? I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU SAID THAT! IN MY OPINION, JUNIOR JUMBLE IS EASILY THE HARDEST."

"what? really, dude? that easy-peasy word scramble? that's for baby-bones."

"UN. BELIEVABLE. HUMANS! SOLVE THIS DISPUTE!"

The Guardian chuckles a bit, "Of course, Papyrus! Junior Jumble is _really hard_ , much harder than crossword." The Guardian replies sarcastically with a wink towards sans.

"HA! HA! YES! HUMANS MUST BE VERY INTELLIGENT IF THEY ALSO FIND JUNIOR JUMBLE SO DIFFICULT! NYEH! HEH! HEH-HEH!" Papyrus yells before running off to prepare the next puzzle. The Guardian walks up to sans, giving him a small amused smile.

"thanks for saying 'Junior Jumble' just to appease my brother. yesterday he got stumped trying to 'solve' the horoscope."

"Yeah, no problem." replies The Guardian with a laugh. Up ahead is a note, a mouse hole, and a couple of tables, one with a plate of spaghetti, the other with a microwave, nearby is another SAVE point, which Frisk immediately goes to.

 **(Knowing the mouse might one day find a way to heat up the spaghetti… It fills you with DETERMINATION)**

They go to read the note, which is from Papyrus, it reads "HUMAN! PLEASE ENJOY THIS SPAGHETTI. (LITTLE DO YOU KNOW, THIS SPAGHETTI IS A TRAP, DESIGNED TO ENTICE YOU! YOU'LL BE SO BUSY EATING IT THAT YOU WON'T REALIZE THAT YOU AREN'T PROGRESSING! THOROUGHLY JAPED AGAIN BY THE GREAT PAPYRUS!) -NYEH-HEH-HEH, PAPYRUS."

"Well, it's not so much of a trap if you announce how it's a trap before we're even trapped." They go to look at the spaghetti, but it's frozen. It's so cold, that it's stuck to the table. The Guardian shrugs before turning away and walking off with Frisk. Ahead is another open area, with a sign to their left, it reads "Warning: Dog Marriage"

"Uh, okay? I'm sure we won't be interrupting if we're just passing through." They start to walk away, but before they can get very far…

 **Lesser Dog appears!** An armored dog monster with a sword and shield approached the two. Frisk's SOUL once again, floats out in front of them.

"Huh? Oh, hello there." The Guardian says with a small wave. Lesser Dog says nothing, but wags its tail excitedly. ACT, Pet. Frisk walks up to Lesser Dog with a hand outreached but before they could even pet it, the dog got excited and its head stretched upwards, surprising the two. **Lesser Dog is barking excitedly.**

Suddenly, a random dog runs out from the trees at Frisk and the have to side-step to avoid getting tackled. Frisk is able to spare Lesser Dog, but before they can, The Guardian stops them, "Hold up, let me try something..." He walks up to the dog and lightly touches it, it's already overexcited. Its head yet again extends upward. "Oh, this should be fun."

Soon enough, its head is higher than The Guardian can reach. He turns to Frisk with an amused smile, "Check this out." He snaps his fingers and magic begins to swirl around his legs. After a moment, he begins to float upwards a little, reaching to pet the dog once more. **Critical pet! Dog excitement increased.**

After a lot of petting and slowly floating upward, The Guardian and Lesser Dog have nearly reached the snowing clouds at the roof of the Underground when Lesser Dog begins to turn and stretch beck downwards. Soon, the dog is nearing the ground… It's possible that they may have a problem. Eventually, Lesser Dog's ears are touching the ground.

The Guardian lands and the magic around his legs disperses, he crouches down to pet the dog while it slowly buries its head underground. **Lesser Dog has gone where no dog has gone before.** Lesser Dog is beyond reach when The Guardian finally stops. With a laugh, he steps away as Frisk giggles and spares him… Finally.

 **YOU WON! You earned 0 XP and 60 Gold.**

They check to make sure the dog is fine as his head pops back out of the ground and walk away as it flies back up into the air.

"That was fun, huh?" The Guardian says as he smiles at Frisk. They smile back and nod. As they head south, they see spikes blocking their path and a suspicious pile of snow. The Guardian raises a glowing hand and picks up the snow with magic and moves it away, revealing a map of the area. A red 'X' is shown to the northeast of them.

When they get over there, they see a strangely flattened area of snow, upon closer inspection, they find a small switch hidden under it. The Guardian flicks it and they walk back to the map to find that the spikes are retracted.

"Well, that was easy, huh?" They move across a small bridge and two more dog monsters approach with their hoods over their eyes.

"What's that smell?" Says a male voice.

"Where's that smell?" Asks a female voice.

Both of the dogs are wielding axes. The Guardian lightly pushes Frisk behind him as he watches the dogs closely.

"If you're a smell..."

"… Identify your _smell_ f!" Frisk has to keep from giggling at that as the monsters smell around the small area until they come back to them.

"Hmm… Here's that weird smell… It makes me want to eliminate."

"… Eliminate YOU!" Frisk's SOUL floats out in front of them.

 **Dogi assault you!** ACT, Dogamy, Check. **Dogamy, 6 ATK, 4 DEF. Husband of Dogaressa. Knows only what he smells.** The dogs swing their axes at the two smells and The Guardian reacts quickly by catching the blades in his palms as his arms seemingly teleport from his sides. He speaks in a much lower, and almost mocking, tone than normal.

 **"Sorry, but nobody's eliminating** _ **anyone**_ **..."** The dogs try to take a step back, but The Guardian is holding on to the axes tightly, almost bending the metal. "We mean no harm… But if anyone hurts Frisk… Well..." He says with a deep, rumbling chuckle, **"I won't hesitate to** _ **break them**_ **."** The dogs recoil at that. "Now..." He says as he releases the blades, leaving indents of his hands of the axes, and claps his hand together.

"Unless anything happens to Frisk, I'm usually a pretty friendly guy. I like to help out, make friends, but Frisk is my _top_ priority. If anything happens to them, even if I'm not there, _I'll know_." He smiles at the dogs casually, "Well, we'll be on our way." He says as Frisk's SOUL floats back into their chest and The Guardian leads them around the dogs and ahead.

 **YOU WON! You earned 0 XP and 40 Gold.**

As they're walking, Frisk stops The Guardian and grabs both of his hands and looks at his palms.

"Relax, Frisk. My hands are fine, I'm fine." he says as he chuckles at Frisk's shocked expression at the lack of a single scratch on his hands, even after catching the full force of those axes on them. "Come on, let's keep going." Frisk nods and as they move ahead, they see another puzzle with a sign nearby it, it reads, "Turn every 'X' into an 'O', then press the switch." The Guardian looks at the simple puzzle and directs Frisk to one of them as he goes to the other and notices Papyrus on the other side of a set of spikes, presumably connected to the puzzle.

They both step on the 'X's and they turn into red 'O's. As The Guardian steps onto the switch, the spikes retract and they approach Papyrus.

"WHAT!? HOW DID YOU AVOID MY TRAP? AND, MORE IMPORTANTLY… IS THERE ANY LEFT FOR ME?" The Guardian looks behind him for a second, before realizing what he meant.

In the battles with the dog monsters, he had completely forgotten about the frozen spaghetti.

"Well, we couldn't actually eat it since it was frozen..." He muttered under his breath. Luckily, Papyrus didn't hear. "We… Left it."

"REALLY!? WOWIE… YOU RESISTED THE FLAVOR OF MY HOME-COOKED PASTA… JUST SO YOU COULD SHARE IT WITH ME?" The Guardian looks back at an equally confused Frisk.

"Uh… Sure, yeah, heh..." Papyrus beams at him.

"FRET NOT HUMANS! I, MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS, WILL MAKE YOU ALL THE PASTA YOU COULD EVER WANT! HEH-HEH-HEH-NYEH!" As he runs off, The Guardian lets out a sigh.

"Well then… That was… Interesting." He says as he scratches his head. "Anyways, continuing on!" Yet again, Papyrus is waiting for them.

"MY BROTHER STARTED A SOCK COLLECTION RECENTLY. HOW SADDENING… SOMETIMES I WONDER WHAT HE WOULD DO WITHOUT SUCH A COOL GUY TAKING CARE OF HIM? NYEH-HEH-HEH!"

As they move forward to the next puzzle, Papyrus rushes over to explain it, "HUMAN! HMM… HOW DO I SAY THIS…" He says as he puts a hand to his chin. "YOU WERE TAKING A LONG TIME TO ARRIVE, SO I DECIDED TO IMPROVE THIS PUZZLE BY ARRANGING THE SNOW TO LOOK MORE LIKE MY FACE. UNFORTUNATELY, THE SNOW FROZE TO THE GROUND. NOW THE SOLUTION IS DIFFERENT! AND, AS USUAL, MY LAZY BROTHER IS NOWHERE AROUND. I SUPPOSE WHAT I'M SAYING IS…" He takes a pose, "WORRY NOT, HUMAN! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL SOLVE THIS CONUNDRUM! THEN WE CAN BOTH PROCEED! MEANWHILE, FEEL FREE TO TRY THE PUZZLE YOURSELF! I'LL TRY NOT TO GIVE AWAY THE ANSWER!"

The Guardian turns and looks over the puzzle, which is a more complicated version of the 'X' to 'O' puzzle. After a moment, he turns back to Frisk and Papyrus, "Alright, I think I got it." He says as he move around to the opposite side. Once there, he looks at it again before nodding to himself and stepping on the first 'X', and then, without hesitation, follows a perfect path and completes the puzzle.

Stepping on the switch, he turns to Papyrus, "WOW! YOU SOLVED IT! AND YOU DID IT ALL WITHOUT MY HELP… " said the surprised skeleton. "INCREDIBLE! I'M IMPRESSED! YOU MUST CARE ABOUT PUZZLES LIKE I DO!"

The Guardian chuckles at him, "I do enjoy puzzles, yes."

Papyrus smiles at him, "WELL, I'M SURE YOU'LL LOVE THE NEXT PUZZLE THEN! IT MIGHT EVEN BE TOO EASY FOR YOU! NYEH! HEH-HEH! HEHEHEH!" He says before running off to the next puzzle.

"Heh, I don't doubt that, Papyrus." The Guardian sighed. He looks to Frisk, "I don't have as much energy as I used to…" Frisk gives him a worried look, "Ah, I'm fine. Now, I may not look old, but that's because I stopped aging centuries ago…" He says before realizing something, "Wait… How did I know that? My amnesia might be wearing off… Hopefully." He smiles at Frisk, "Maybe I'll be able to tell you about my past soon."

The Guardian raises a glowing hand to his chest and he is enveloped in a bright green glow for a moment before stretching his arms out and cracking his knuckles loudly. Watching from a distance, sans cringes at that.

"Phew, much better..." he says before noticing Frisk's confused expression, chuckling, he explains, "My healing magic can be used for more things than just healing. It's very refreshing…" Frisk asks him if he could try it on them, since they're getting tired.

"Oh, sure, why not? Though, it will feel a little strange. It'll be very tingly, but will also send endorphins throughout your body, so you'll feel a little funny for a moment. I mean that literally, everything will be funny, you'll be giggling a lot at this." He says as he puts a glowing hand to Frisk's head and the glow covers their whole body for a few seconds and during that, they can't stop smiling and giggling.

"See? Told you." The Guardian says with a laugh as he ruffles their hair. When they finally stop laughing, he asks "How was that, huh? You feel more awake?" They nod with a smile, "Alright, let's keep going. Don't want to keep Papyrus waiting, do you?" Frisk vigorously shakes their head with more energy then they have had in a long time.

Up ahead, sans is waiting. "good job on solving it so quickly. you didn't even need my help. which is great, 'cause i love doing absolutely nothing."

"Well, it wasn't that difficult. It's a pretty nice concept for a puzzle and could've been much harder. We'll see you up ahead, I guess?" The Guardian says as he glances back at the puzzle.

"heh, yep. wouldn't want paps to get _bonely_ , huh?" Frisk snorts as they cover their face to keep from bursting out laughing while The Guardian just chuckles, partly at the pun, but mostly at Frisk.

"Well, maybe I should take the F _risk_ and try to be more _humerus_." Says The Guardian as he points at sans' humerus. Nothing could stop Frisk from rolling in the snow laughing while sans chuckles, pretending to wipe away a tear.

"good one, kid."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** _I plan on getting at least two chapters out per week. Hopefully, I can do more,_ _but I don't want this to take up all of my time, as I don't write particularly fast and it's sometimes a little difficult to come up with different stuff from the game, sorry._


	6. Bonedoggle

**Author's Note:** _I'm really sorry about the_ _month_ _l_ _ong hiatus, I've just been an idiot, haha. But on to some changes, f_ _rom now on, I'm going to stop having Papyrus talk in all-caps, as it_ _'_ _s starting to_ _bother me hav_ _ing_ _capital letters everywhere_ _._ _There will be some other noticeable changes as well._

* * *

Moving ahead, Frisk and The Guardian find sans and Papyrus on the other side of a large grid of gray squares on the ground. As Frisk looks at where sans was just a moment ago, The Guardian raises a brow, but just shrugs. As they step forward, the skeletons look over.

"Hey! It's the humans! You're gonna love this puzzle! It was made by the great Dr. Alphys!" Yells Papyrus as The Guardian very slightly narrows his eyes at the mention of the unknown person.

"You see these tiles? Once I throw this switch…" Papyrus says as he motions toward a strange box. "… They will begin to change color! Each color has a different function! Red tiles are impassable! You cannot walk on them! Yellow tiles are electric! They will electrocute you! Green tiles are alarm tiles! If you step on them… You will have to FIGHT a monster! Orange tiles are orange-scented. They will make you smell delicious..."

As Papyrus gives the lengthy explanation of the next puzzle, The Guardian starts to stare off into space… Or rather, the roof of the Underground, with his hands in his pockets. Papyrus didn't notice as he was busy explaining to Frisk, who was listening intently. Meanwhile, The Guardian's glowing green eyes shift to blue, creating a projection of a view of Earth from space that only he could see. He has always been fascinated with space and would often go there. Being immortal, he didn't necessarily have to breathe, as his SOUL would sustain him even in the harshest of conditions… From what he remembered, anyway.

He was snapped out of his thoughts as Papyrus yelled "How was that? Understand?" He looks over as his space projection vanishes, seeing Papyrus waiting for him to respond. He nods at the skeleton, who smiled.

"Great! Then there's one last thing… This puzzle… Is entirely random!" Papyrus says.

 _'Oh, well that's not bad, I can just scan his mind for the rules when he's not looking anyways.'_ The Guardian thinks to himself.

Papyrus turns back to the switch, "When I pull this switch, it will make a puzzle that has never been seen before! Not even I will know the solution! Nyeh-heh-heh! Get ready…!"

As Papyrus turns to flip the switch, The Guardian looks at him and his eyes glow blue once more. After a second, they go back to green and he nods to himself. Suddenly, the grid lights up in many different blinking colors, slowly picking up in speed until it stops on… Well, not even The Guardian can keep from laughing as the puzzle stops with a straight path of pink tiles, which did nothing, and the rest were red tiles, which couldn't be passed through.

Frisk was rolling around in the snow laughing and sans was doubled over with his hands on his knees. The look on Papyrus' face was priceless as he threw his arms in the air and stormed off.

Once everyone calmed down, The Guardian lead Frisk across the puzzle and approached sans, who was wiping a tear from his eyesocket.

"That might've been the funniest thing I've seen in decades." The Guardian said, still chuckling. "…I think…"

"heh, yeah. i don't think anything better could've happened." sans says as he looks towards where Papyrus went.

"actually, that spaghetti from earlier… it wasn't too bad for my brother. since he started cooking lessons, he's been improving a lot. i bet if he keeps it up, next year he'll even make something edible."

The next area is filled with snow sculptures of what look like Lesser Dog and his infinitely stretching neck. In the middle of the sculptures is a sentry station with a sign, it reads "AWARE OF DOG. Pleas pet dog"

"Well, judging by this and the sculptures, I'd say this is Lesser Dog's station… Huh, 'please' is misspelled on the sign." He looks to Frisk, "Anyways, there's a SAVE point over there, you should use it." Frisk nods and moves to the SAVE point, but suddenly stops. The Guardian walks over to see why Frisk stopped, before seeing a deer-like monster in some strange purple clothing leaning against a tree.

Before either can speak, the deer monster looks up and says "A dog just rushed in here, filled with inspiration. It kept trying to build a snowdog that expressed its own emotions… But, as it built, it kept getting more excited about the sculpture… Its neck got longer and longer, and it added more and more snow, until… It was rather sad to watch, but I couldn't turn away."

The Guardian looked back, confused. "Lesser Dog? How did he get here before us? We saw him a while ago, but he was still there when we left." He looks to Frisk, who shrugged at him. He sighs, "I guess there are many things that even I have yet to understand."

The two moved over to look at some of the sculptures, hoping that the deer monster would leave so that Frisk could SAVE without anyone else watching. When it was clear that they wouldn't leave, Frisk just walks over to the golden star and SAVEs.

Luckily, the deer didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary, so the two just moved on, giving the monster a wave.

Ahead was a large area of ice with another "'X' to 'O'" puzzle. The south side of which had a small drop and a slope leading to the bottom. Before attempting the dangerous puzzle, they carefully went down the slope to check for alternate paths.

Much to their amusement, they found a snow sculpture of a strangely muscular Papyrus and a small mound of snow with 'Sans' written on it in… Ketchup? As Frisk was giggling at the sculpture and… pile, The Guardian looked around for an alternate path, to no avail.

 _'Well, alright then. I guess we'll have to go through the puzzle.'_ The Guardian thought.

"Alright, come on Frisk." The Guardian says, chuckling. "Let's head back up, there isn't another path." Frisk nods and they climb back up to the ice puzzle. They take another look at the puzzle for a few moments after getting back up.

The Guardian is about to try to solve it when Frisk stops him. They give him a pleading look and, understanding what they mean, he says "You want to do one, huh?" They nod.

"Well, I'll let you do the next one…" Frisk perks up at that before he continues, " _If_ it isn't dangerous. I don't want you getting hurt, even though I can heal it." He gives Frisk a serious expression and they pout, "Hey, I'm sure you'll have lots of fun. Come on, we'll get past this and meet back up with the skeletons."

The Guardian steps up to the ice and counts up twelve 'X's. Snapping his fingers, twelve magical lights appeared, one a few inches over each 'X'. They change shape into large disk-like objects, slowly dimming and solidifying into physical objects.

With a loud clang, twelve large weights land on each 'X', turning them into 'O's.

"And the switch…" The Guardian says as he snaps his fingers once more and the weights morph back into magical lights and fade away. At the same time, a thirteenth light appears over the switch, again, turning into a large weight.

As the plate depresses, all of the 'O's turn green and a small stone bridge extends on the other side of the puzzle, connecting to another path.

The Guardian raises a glowing hand and a bright white path across the ice lights up as the last weight vanishes. Clenching his hand, his fist and the path suddenly glow red as the ice underneath begins to melt from the substantial amount of heat coming off of the path. In seconds, the glowing ice has melted into a puddle of steaming water.

The Guardian relaxes his hand, the fiery red glow subsides and a dim blue glow takes it's place.

With a slight flick of his wrist, the water is formed into a large spike and launched into a large tree, where it falls onto the snow.

"Well…" The Guardian claps his hands together. He stops as he notices Frisk staring off into the distance.

He places his hand on their shoulder and they jump slightly and look back at him before turning away to stare at something. The Guardian follows their eyes and sees the roofs of some houses that aren't too far away.

With a squeeze of their shoulder, Frisk turns back to him. "Come on. We're not too far. We'll see if there's an inn that we can stay at when we get there." The Guardian says with a small smile.

Frisk's face brightens at the idea of sleeping in a big, soft, warm bed. They swiftly nod and The Guardian chuckles and puts a hand on their back.

Hoping to cheer them up even more, The Guardian strikes a very Papyrus-like pose. "Come, fellow adventurer! Let us continue on our journey!" He says dramatically.

Frisk promptly erupts into giggles and, unable to keep a straight face, The Guardian starts laughing with them.

"Okay, but seriously, we probably should get moving before it gets dark." After an awkward pause and a strange look from Frisk, he realizes his mistake.

"Oh, right… We're, uh… In a cave… Then I guess before it gets late." he says scratching the back of his head awkwardly.

"Okay, come on. We really should get going, it's…" He pauses and his eyes flash blue for a split-second. "8:00 PM."

Frisk looks at him with a shocked expression and asks if it has really been that long since they left the Ruins. Suddenly reminded of what happened, Frisk looked down at their shoes, saddened by the thought of how Toriel must feel… And then the thought of that pie… That delicious, creamy butterscotch cinnamon pie…

As they're reminded of how long its been since they ate, their stomach growls loudly and they blush and hug their stomach, looking away.

"Heh, I'm sure we'll find a restaurant in that town. Now come on." The Guardian says with a chuckle. Frisk looks up excitedly and nods, following him as he turns to move across the puzzle.

Ahead, they find an area with a small doghouse and a ton of piles of snow. Next to the doghouse is a sign that just says "Woof!".

"I'm gonna go ahead and assume that there's another dog monster somewhere nearby." The Guardian says before walking ahead, but stops before the path ahead as he catches a glint off of one of the piles of snow. Moving over to investigate, he finds thirty gold inside.

"What? Why's this here? Who…?" The Guardian says, confused. He sighs, "Whatever, free money, I guess. Here, Frisk, now we're richer." He says with a chuckle.

Moving to the path, there's a snow pile in the way. As The Guardian approaches to move it, a dog tail pops out of the back, wagging. Next, the dog's head pops out the front and barks excitedly at him.

The Guardian chuckles and is about to reach forward to pet the dog when suddenly, it rises up in a massive suit of armor and with a long spear. The Guardian is forced to take several steps backward as the poor snow pile is obliterated. **It's the Greater Dog.**

The Guardian steps behind Frisk as their SOUL floats out in front of them. Looking at Greater Dog, The Guardian notices not only a dog face on Greater Dog's right wrist, but also one on his spear.

With a chuckle, The Guardian puts a hand on Frisk's shoulder. "You've got this." He says quietly before stepping back.

 **ACT, Greater Dog, Beckon. Frisk calls the Greater Dog. It bounds towards them, flecking slobber into their face.**

The word 'Bark' flies through the air at Frisk multiple times, but they dodge easily enough.

 **Greater Dog is seeking attention. ACT, Greater Dog, Pet. Greater Dog curls up in Frisk's lap as it is pet by them. It gets so comfortable that it falls asleep… Zzzzz… Then it wakes up! It's so excited!**

More 'Bark's fly at Frisk, but they dodge them again, even easier this time.

 **Greater Dog is patting the ground with its front paws. ACT, Greater Dog, Play. Frisk makes a snowball and throws it for the dog to fetch. It splats on the ground. Greater Dog picks up all the snow in the area and brings it to Frisk.**

Frisk snorts and covers their face with their hands as they laugh while The Guardian barks out a laugh.

 **Now dog is very tired… It rests its head on Frisk…**

As the dog does so, Frisk nearly collapses under the immense weight.

 **Greater Dog wants some TLC. ACT, Greater Dog, Pet. As Frisk pets the dog, it sinks its entire weight on them… But, they still haven't pet enough…!**

Frisk's knees buckle and they fall onto their back with Greater Dog on them, slobbering all over them.

A spear is launched sideways at Frisk, flashing blue. They try to roll sideways, but can't with Greater Dog on them. Luckily, the spear is blue when it gets to them and phases through them.

 **Pet capacity is 40 percent. ACT, Greater Dog, Pet. Frisk pets decisively. Pet capacity reaches 100 percent. The dog flops over with its legs hanging in the air.**

Frisk immediately takes in a very deep breath as Greater Dog rolls off of them. They swiftly roll to the side as more 'Bark's fly towards them. They barely manage to dodge all of them after being caught off-guard.

 **Greater Dog is contented. MERCY, Spare. Frisk Won! They earned 0 XP and 40 Gold.**

After Frisk's SOUL floats back in them, they take a slow, deep breath with their hand on their chest. Greater Dog walks up to them and hops out of its suit of armor and licks Frisk in the face before jumping back into the armor backwards and walking off like nothing's wrong, leaving Frisk giggling.

"Feels good… Doesn't it?" The Guardian asks as he puts a hand on Frisk's shoulder. They give him a confused look.

"That feeling your SOUL gives off when you spare someone… That warm… Happy feeling…" The Guardian says as he puts a hand to his own chest. "I just remembered another thing about my past… How I can no longer have that amazing feeling from my SOUL anymore." Frisk looks at him with a worried expression as he looks off into the distance longingly.

"I remember my early years, when my SOUL had yet to reach its full potential and I could hold it within me. I remember that feeling… But as I got older and my SOUL got more powerful, I had to… Remove it from me and store it within a pocket dimension with a much weaker connection… One that stops it from killing me… but blocks that feeling…" The Guardian says as he closes his eyes and looks away.

He sighs, "I'm… Sorry… I did not mean to be so depressing." He says as he holds his head in his hand.

He looks to Frisk, "If you don't mind, I'd rather not discuss this further… I guess this is the kind of memory that I wish stayed locked away."

The Guardian rubs his face with his hands, as if to wipe away the sadness in his expression.

"Well, we ought to, uh… Keep moving." He says looking back at Frisk with a small smile, though Frisk can still see the sadness in his eyes and that his smile is forced. Not wanting to press the matter any further, Frisk nods and they continue on towards the town.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** _Again,_ _I'm so sorry about the_ _month_ _long_ _hiatus_ _, but I've been so distracted with Deus Ex: Human Revolution_ _and Borderlands 2_ _…_ _But seriously, I've just been putting it off and I'm sorry._ _Now, don't get me wrong, I do enjoy writing this. I'm just a little new to this and coming up with things to write can be difficult for me, so I tend to put it off when I really shouldn't._ _I'll try to put it out more often, but I doubt I'll have two chapters out per week like I said I would._ _Also yes, The Guardian_ _barking out a laugh was a pun._


	7. Snowdin

**Author's Note:** _I'm starting this right after uploading the last chapter, hopefully so that I can get this out within a few days._

* * *

Up ahead, Frisk and The Guardian come across a very long wooden bridge over a large drop. Frisk seems reluctant to cross it, let alone step foot over such a large drop.

"Come on. It can't be that big of a…" The Guardian stops suddenly as he looks down from the ledge. "… Drop… I take that back."

Looking across, The Guardian sees sans and Papyrus standing on the other side, chatting. Past them is the town, which Frisk seems to take notice of at the same time. They take a step towards it before looking back down and jumping back.

Frisk looks at The Guardian shyly, "Could… Could you… C-Carry me across…?" They ask quietly.

"Hmm? Oh, sure. Just, uh… Don't look down, since you might panic and… Yeah." The Guardian says before picking up Frisk with one arm behind their back and the other holding their legs up.

Frisk yelps slightly from the sudden lift and is baffled by The Guardian's strength that makes them feel incredibly light.

The Guardian starts to walk across the bridge and Frisk clings to him like a lifeline. With a small chuckle, he continues on over to sans and Papyrus.

Halfway across the bridge, The Guardian suddenly stops with a look of both shock and anger. Before Frisk can question it, he turns around and catches a glimpse of something yellow and green popping back underground as Frisk freezes up in his arms.

As The Guardian growls in anger, Frisk gives him worried, questioning look.

"… Flowey." The one word is enough to scare Frisk, as they remember what he did in the Ruins. "… He's following us…" The Guardian says before seeing Frisk's frightened expression.

"Don't worry, Frisk. I won't let him hurt you. I _won't_." He says, mostly for Frisk, but partly for himself. Shaking his head, his expression returns to normal before he turns around again towards the skeletons.

When they near the end of the bridge, Papyrus looks over and sees them as The Guardian stops walking.

"Humans! This is your final and most dangerous challenge! Behold! The gauntlet of deadly terror!" Papyrus yells before, seemingly from nowhere, a spike ball, two spears, a cannon, a flame thrower, and a… Dog… Appear above and below the bridge.

"When I say the word, it will fully activate! Cannons will fire! Spikes will swing! Blades will slice! Each part will swing violently up and down! Only the tiniest chance of victory will remain! Are you ready!? Because! I! Am! About! To do it!"

As Frisk tenses up in fright, The Guardian readies his magic and Frisk can feel a massive amount of energy coming from him.

After a short pause of nothing happening, Papyrus turns away and sans speaks up. "well? what's the holdup?"

Papyrus turns to him, "Holdup!? What holdup!? I'm… I'm about to activate it now!" He says, unsure of himself.

After another pause, sans points at the deadly machine, "that, uh, doesn't look very activated."

"Well! This challenge! It seems…" Papyrus says with a thoughtful expression, "Maybe… Too easy to defeat the humans with. Yeah! We can't use this one! I am a skeleton with standards! My puzzles are very fair! And my traps are expertly cooked! But this method is too direct! No class at all! Away it goes!"

As the trap retracts, The Guardian relaxes and Frisk is almost disappointed to have the powerful hum of energy disappear with his magic.

"Phew!" Papyrus sighs before turning back to the two on the bridge. "What are you two looking at!? This was another decisive victory for Papyrus! Nyeh! Heh!… Heh?" He says before turning and walking off, Frisk giggling at his words before remembering where they were and they tug at The Guardian's shirt impatiently.

"Oh, right. Sorry, we'll get off this bridge now." He says as he walks across over to sans and sets them down next to the skeleton.

The Guardian closes his eyes and takes a deep breath… Exhaling what appears to be golden dust. When he opens his eyes, he's greeted by confused looks from Frisk and sans.

"Excess magic. It happens when I prepare my magic, but don't use any of it." He explains before sans chuckles and looks towards the town, where his brother went.

"i don't know what my brother's going to do now. if i were you, i would make sure i understand _blue attacks_." sans advises.

"Eh, I think we've got it. Blue stop signs, right?" The Guardian replies jokingly.

"heh, yep, you got it." sans says with a small chuckle.

Continuing on into the town, much to the delight of Frisk, they see a large, lit up sign that says "Welcome to Snowdin."

"Snowdin, huh? That's a nice name- Wait a minute, that's a pun… Isn't it?" The Guardian said with narrowed eyes. Once Frisk got the pun, they started laughing. "It's surprising that Papyrus hasn't forcibly dragged sans out of Snowdin with him. Maybe he just hasn't gotten it yet." He says with a chuckle.

The two move to the closest building, the shop. Next to which, is a SAVE point and a dimensional box.

"Hey, you should go SAVE, who knows what'll happen." The Guardian says. Frisk nods and heads to the golden four-pointed star. **The sight of such a friendly town fills Frisk with determination.** After the SAVE, they head into the shop.

As they walk in, they are greeted by the woman behind the counter, who's a rabbit monster. "Hiya! Welcome to Snowdin! I can't remember the last time I saw a fresh face around here. Where did you come from? The capital? You don't look like a tourist. Are you here by yourselves?"

"Yeah, we're by ourselves, and yeah, we're from the capital." The Guardian says with a chuckle. "What can we do around town? We're kinda new here, sorry."

"Oh, it's fine. Grillby's has food and the library has information. If you're tired, you can take a nap at the inn. It's right next door, my sister runs it. And if you're bored, you can sit outside and watch those wacky skeletons do their thing. There's two of 'em… Brothers, I think. They just showed up one day and… Asserted themselves. The town has gotten a lot more interesting since then." The owner explains.

"Yep, we've met them… They're certainly… Interesting… But anyways, thank you." The Guardian says with a friendly smile.

The owner returns the smile, "Would you like to buy anything?" She asks.

The Guardian looks to Frisk, "Sure, what have you got for sale?" he replies.

"I've got a Tough Glove for 50 G, a Manly Bandanna for 50 G, Bisicles for 15 G each, and Cinnamon Buns for 25 G each." She says. Frisk looks up excitedly at the thought of cinnamon buns.

"Heh, I can already tell what they want." The Guardian chuckles, motioning towards Frisk. "We'll take a cinnamon bun." He says, handing her 25 G.

"It's my own recipe." She says as she hands him a steaming cinnamon bun. "Really? Well, thank you. I'm sure they'll love it." The Guardian says, turning and handing the bun to Frisk, who almost immediately digs in, making contented noises from the warm, delicious, cinnamon goodness.

"Alright, well, we'll see you later. Thanks for the help and the bun." The Guardian says, getting ready to leave.

"Actually, what's your name?" She asks before he can open the door.

"Oh, uh, John Doe." The Guardian says, turning to shake her hand. "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, John." She says before he turns to leave again. "Bye now! Come again sometime!"

"Alright, I'll be sure to." The Guardian replies with a wave before leaving.

Once outside, The Guardian turns to Frisk before they can question him. "No, my name isn't actually John Doe. I still don't remember my own, so I just said that. Also, I know I lied to her about where we came from, but I don't know how they'd react if we said that we're from the surface. Luckily, Papyrus and sans seem to be the only ones who know we're human, or at least the only ones who actually care."

"Now, why don't we head down to Grillby's and spend a night at the inn?" Frisk seems to forget their worries as they bounce with excitement for food and sleep.

They walk through town until they reach a small building with 'Grillby's' in neon lights. As they walk in, they see the dog monsters that they fought earlier, Lesser Dog, Greater Dog, Doggo, Dogamy, and Dogaressa.

As they walk past, the two cloaked dogs back away slightly. "Relax, I'm not here to do anything. I'm sorry if I scared you before. I can be pretty scary, even if I don't mean it." The Guardian says quietly. They seem to relax a bit.

They continue on up to the counter, where they sit at two barstools and are greeted by a fire monster drying a glass, presumably Grillby.

"…" Grillby doesn't seem to say anything, but a red bird monster nearby translates. "Grillbz said that he'd offer you a glass of water, but he doesn't touch the stuff."

Frisk giggles and Grillby hands them a menu. Both of them pick burgers and Grillby nods and walks into the back room. When he opens the door, there's just a wall of flame that he walks through.

After a few minutes, Grillby comes back holding two burgers and hands them to the two.

"Thank you, Grillby." The Guardian says with a smile. The fire monster nods and returns to drying glasses.

After taking a bite, Frisk's eyes widen in shock at the deliciousness of the burger before they devour it in a few bites.

"Heh, looks like you really like burgers, huh?" The Guardian says to Frisk, a little surprised at how fast they ate it. He shrugs and eats his own.

Once they're done, Grillby turns back to them and after a few seconds, the red bird monster speaks up again. "Grillbz said that'll be 50 G."

"Oh, of course." The Guardian says as he pulls 50 Gold out and hands it to Grillby, who puts it under the counter.

"Alright, well, thanks again for the food, Grillby." The Guardian says as he and Frisk leave. "Well, let's go get some rest, huh?" Frisk stifles a yawn and nods tiredly.

When they get to the inn, they walk up to the counter where the shopkeeper's sister is.

"Welcome to Snowed Inn! Snowdin's premier hotel! One night is 80 G." The innkeeper says, smiling at her guests.

"Thanks, we've had a long day. Here." The Guardian replies, handing her 80 Gold. He seems to be getting a little tired himself.

"Here's your room key. Make sure to bundle up!" She hands him a key with a number on it, 06. They move upstairs to go to their room.

The room has two beds and is kinda small, but it's warm and comfortable with soft, squishy beds. After about ten hours of sleep, The Guardian wakes up before Frisk and goes over to wake them up.

"Hey, Frisk, It's time to get up. We've got to get going." He says as he shakes them lightly. They roll over and groan that they want five more minutes. "Frisk, come on. It's time to get up." He says as he shakes them a little more.

They sit up and rub their eyes and ask what time it is. "It's 8:00. Come on, get dressed." Reluctantly, they get up and grab their clothes and they go to take a shower. About half an hour later, they're walking downstairs to talk to the innkeeper.

"Hiya! You look like you had a great sleep." She smiles at them.

"Yeah, we did, thanks. Those beds are incredibly comfortable. Frisk here slept like a rock. Heh, again, thank you. We needed that." He says, grateful for the time for Frisk to get some sleep. Though, once they were asleep, he left to go see where they would be going next. It's to an area called Waterfall.

Soon, they left the inn and Frisk used the SAVE point once again before they continued to the east. They stop at the edge of town when they come across a large, two-story house. One of the mailboxes outside is labeled 'Papyrus'.

"This must be Papyrus and sans' house. I'm sure we'll see them up ahead… I wonder what shenanigans they'll have planned this time." The Guardian says, looking ahead of them. "Well, we should keep going. Probably shouldn't keep them waiting any longer than we already have."

As they move ahead, it starts to get really foggy, so foggy that they can't see more than ten feet in front of them. Soon, a tall figure can be seen in the fog.

"Humans. Allow me to tell you about some complex feelings. Feelings like… The joy of finding another pasta lover. The admiration for another's puzzle-solving skills. The desire to have a cool, smart person think you are cool. These feelings… They must be what you are feeling right now!" Yells Papyrus while The Guardian gives him confused looks that he can't see.

"I can hardly imagine what it must be like to feel that way. After all, I am very great. I don't ever wonder what having lots of friends is like. I pity you… Lonely humans… Worry not! You shall be lonely no longer! I, The Great Papyrus, will be your…" Papyrus stops and turns away.

"No… No, this is all wrong! I can't be your friend! You are a human!" He says, turning back and striking a pose.

"I must capture you! Then, I can fulfill my lifelong dream! Powerful! Popular! Prestigious! That's Papyrus! The newest member of the Royal Guard!" He yells as Frisk's SOUL floats out in front of them. **Papyrus blocks the way!**

Frisk takes a confident step forward, but before they can continue, The Guardian puts a hand on their shoulder.

"Let me handle this." He says before Frisk shoots him a worried look. "Don't worry, I won't hurt him." Reluctantly, the nod and take a few steps back, The Guardian moving to where they were.

"Papyrus, I don't want to FIGHT. I know you don't either." The Guardian says with a stoic expression.

"So you won't FIGHT… Then, let's see if you can handle my fabled _Blue Attack_!" Papyrus says as his right eye glows orange and many blue bones fly at The Guardian, who's standing as still as a statue, causing the bones to phase through him, with no effect. He didn't even flinch.

"You're blue now! That's my att-… Nyeh!? My blue magic didn't do anything!? What!?" Papyrus yells, slightly panicking.

"It did not do anything because I did not let it." The Guardian says, expression unchanging.

Papyrus launches normal bones at him, but they bounce off and do zero damage. "You cannot harm me, Papyrus. I sense great power within you, but it is nothing compared to mine. Though I will not unleash it upon you, because I consider you to be my friend. I am sure we both do, Papyrus." The Guardian says as he catches a bone that is inches from his face and crushes it in his hand.

"D-Don't make me use my special attack, human!" Papyrus yells, completely panicking now.

"Calm down, Papyrus. I shall not harm you. Though, there is something that I must tell you." The Guardian replies, attempting to calm him down so that he doesn't do anything irrational.

"Y-Yes, human?" Papyrus says, considering his options.

"I am not a human." The Guardian says as he teleports to the side to avoid a bone. Papyrus take a step back in shock at the display of magic. The Guardian then begins slowly walking towards the skeleton, who continues to throw bones, to no avail.

"I am The Guardian. I was sent here to protect this human. I am a being of god-like power and I am your friend. I do not wish to harm you." The Guardian says, still approaching Papyrus, who's trying to play it cool, but failing.

Soon, The Guardian is standing right in front of Papyrus, who is shaking and his bones are rattling.

"Relax, Papyrus…" The Guardian says as he puts a glowing hand to Papyrus' chest. When he brings his hand back down, Papyrus stumbles backwards a bit before collapsing on the ground.

Watching from a distance, sans rushes over at the sight of his brother dropping onto the ground. Crouching down at Papyrus, sans looks over at The Guardian with a mixture of anger and shock at how fast he took down Papyrus.

"what did you do!?" sans yells at him, panicking.

"Relax, sans. He's fine. Just asleep. He'll be back up in a minute or so." The Guardian says calmly before walking over to Papyrus and sitting on the other side of him from sans.

"Huh, I didn't even realize that the fog was gone. Oh well." The Guardian says with a shrug.

Seeing sans' glaring glances, The Guardian speaks up again. "Sans. He's fine. It didn't seem like he was going to give up, he's so determined. Heh, he should be waking in about... ten seconds.

Sure enough, about ten seconds later, Papyrus starts to wake up and the first thing sans does is hug him so hard his bones creak.

"Sans? Why are we outside? Wowie, that was a weird… Dream…" Papyrus stops as he sees The Guardian. "Oh… Nyoo hoo hoo… I can't even stop someone as weak as you… Undyne's going to be disappointed in me. I'll never join the Royal Guard and my Friend quantity will remain stagnant." He says sadly.

The Guardian chuckles. "Okay, I am, by no means, weak. But neither are you. I mean, I did say that I had god-like power, so it wasn't exactly a fair fight. Had I been just a human, you would've won… By a lot. Also, Undyne might be disappointed, but sans definitely isn't and I'm not either. I'm sure you'll join the Royal Guard some day and Frisk and I would gladly be you're friends."

Papyrus seems to brighten at that, "Really!? You want to be friends, with me? Well then… I guess… I guess I can make an allowance for you! Wow! I have friends! And who knew that all I needed to make them was to give people awful puzzles and then FIGHT them? You taught me a lot, Guardian. I hereby grant you permission to pass through! And I'll give you directions to the surface."

"That would be wonderful, Papyrus. Thank you." The Guardian says while standing up and reaching a hand out to Papyrus, who takes it and is helped up.

"Thank you, Guardian!" Papyrus beams at The Guardian. "Continue forward until you reach the end of the cavern. Then… When you reach the capital, cross **The Barrier**. That's the magical seal trapping us all underground. Anything can enter through it, but nothing can exit… Except someone with a powerful SOUL… Like you! That's why the king wants to acquire a human. He wants to open the barrier with SOUL power. Then us monsters can return to the surface!"

"Well, if he wants a human SOUL, he'd have to try and get Frisk's, since my SOUL isn't human and would kill him and anything else nearby with its intensity. But don't be alarmed, I don't even have it in my body, since it would kill me. Oh, and don't tell anyone that I'm not human, please. I don't know how that would end." The Guardian says calmly.

"Of course, Guardian! Oh, I almost forgot to tell you!" Papyrus says. "To reach the exit, you will have to pass through The King's castle… The King of all Monsters… He is… Well… He's a big fuzzy pushover! Everybody loves that guy. I am certain if you just say "Excuse me, Mr. Dreemurr… Can I please go home?" He'll guide you right to the barrier himself!" He says with a smile.

The Guardian sighs, "Well, that's good to hear. Maybe we can resolve this peacefully."

"Anyway! That's enough talking! I'll be at home being a cool friend! Feel free to come by and hang out! Nyeh heh heh!" Papyrus yells before rushing off happily.

When The Guardian looks around, sans has disappeared. "Hmm… I wonder where he went to…"

Moving ahead, they find the entrance to Waterfall, a narrow cave with a river running alongside it.

Ahead is a larger room in the cave, with a couple of monsters and sans at one of his sentry stations with a SAVE point nearby. Before talking to sans, Frisk uses the SAVE. **The sound of rushing water fills Frisk with determination.**

When they walk up to sans, he speaks up. "hey, uh, thanks for… y'know… not hurting my brother. it means a lot, really." He clears his non-existant throat. "i'm going to grillby's. you two wanna come?"

Before The Guardian can answer, Frisk turns to him with a pleading expression.

"Heh, I wasn't going to say no anyways, but sure, sans. We'll tag along." The Guardian says, chuckling.

"well, if you insist… i'll pry myself away from my work…" sans says jokingly, eliciting some giggles from Frisk. He walks around his station. "over here. i know a shortcut." He says, leading the two to the east and before they can question it, they're suddenly in Grillby's. Frisk is stumbling a little from the teleport, but The Guardian is unfazed.

"fast shortcut, huh?" sans says before turning around towards everyone else in Grillby's. "hey, everyone." Dogamy, Dogaressa, a rabbit monster, and a… Mouth… Plant… Monster all greeted him before a fish monster at the counter spoke up. "Hey sans, weren't you just in here for breakfast a minute ago?"

"nah, i haven't had breakfast for at least half an hour. you must be thinking of brunch." sans replies with a wink. He turns to Frisk, "here, get comfy." sans sits at one of the stools and motions toward the other and Frisk sits down and a loud fart noise goes off, causing everyone to look at Frisk.

"whoops, watch where you sit down. sometimes weirdos put whoopee cushions on the seats." sans says with a grin before realizing a problem. "oh, uh, sorry. there's only two stools. here, i'll get up." sans is about to get up when The Guardian stops him.

"Nah, you young people enjoy them. I'm fine with standing." The Guardian waves him off.

"young? i'm a skeleton." sans says as he sits back down.

"Yeah, but I guarantee that I am _much_ older than you, sans." The Guardian replies, leaning against the bar.

"heh, maybe. anyway, let's order." sans says as Grillby hands them a menu. "whaddya want…?" All three of them end up deciding on burgers.

"hey, that sounds pretty good. grillby, we'll have a triple order of burg." Once Grillby heads into the back, sans turns to the other two. "so, what do you think of my brother?"

Frisk almost immediately says that they think he's funny.

"He's a pretty cool guy. I'm happy to be his friend." The Guardian says, looking over Frisk's head.

"of course he's cool. you'd be cool too if you wore that outfit every day. he'd only take that thing off if he absolutely had to. oh well. at least he washes it… and by that i mean he wears it in the shower." sans glanced over to see the confused and shocked looks on their faces just as Grillby comes back with the burgers. "here comes the grub."

"want some ketchup?" sans asks and The Guardian shakes his head but Frisk says yes and grabs the bottle, but The Guardian stops them and takes the bottle and screws the lid completely on.

"I see what you were trying to do there, sans. Unscrewing the cap most of the way so that it spilled all over their food…" The Guardian says with narrowed eyes and upon hearing this, Frisk turns and gives him the same look and slowly slides the bottle back over to him.

Sans winks at them, "eh, more for me." he says before drinking the whole thing in a few gulps.

"anyway, cool or not, you have to agree Papyrus tries real hard. like how he keeps trying to be part of the Royal Guard. heh, one day, he went to the house of the head of the Royal Guard and begged her to let him be in it. of course, she shut the door on him because it was midnight." sans paused and grinned as Frisk was giggling. "but the next day, she woke up and saw him still waiting there. seeing his dedication, she decided to give him warrior training. it's, uh, still a work in progress." He pauses.

"oh yeah, i wanted to ask you something… have you ever heard of a talking flower?" as sans asked this, everything outside of a small bubble around the three seemed to darken, quiet, and stop, freezing in time.

"… Flowey…" The Guardian says under his breath.

"hmm?" sans looks up, not quite hearing what he had said.

"Oh, nothing. Uh, no. We haven't." The Guardian responded quickly.

"i'll tell you, then. the _echo flower_. they're all over the marsh. say something to them, and they'll repeat it over and over…" sans looks down at the bar.

"That is interesting, yes… But why are you telling us this…?" The Guardian takes a step away from the bar.

Sans turns to The Guardian. "well, papyrus told me something interesting the other day. sometimes, when no one else is around… a flower appears and whispers things to him. flattery… advice… encouragement… predictions. weird, huh? someone must be using an echo flower to play a trick on him. keep an eye out, ok?"

The Guardian says nothing for a few seconds. "Yeah… Of course…"

"thanks." sans says as everything else seems to brighten back up and the chatter returns. He gets up from the stool and faces away from them. "welp, that was a long break. i can't believe i let ya pull me away from work for that long."

Sans turns back to the two. "oh, by the way… i'm flat broke. can you foot the bill? it's just 10000 G."

The Guardian tilts his head and narrows his eyes. "No. No, it isn't… Is it? We were here yesterday. If it is, we don't have that much."

"eh, i'm just kidding. grillby, put it on my tab." sans says before walking towards the door, but stops before leaving.

"by the way…" He pauses. "… i was going to say something, but i forgot." He walks out the door, leaving The Guardian and Frisk by themselves.

"Well, we ought to get going. Let's go and check out Waterfall." The Guardian says, turning to Frisk. They nod and follow him out the door. As they walk through town, they pass Papyrus' house. He's standing outside.

"Oh, hello human and Guardian! Have you come to hang out with The Great Papyrus?" The skeleton calls to them excitedly.

Frisk waves at him and The Guardian simply smiles. "Sorry, Papyrus. We were on our way to Waterfall. We haven't seen much of the Underground and would like to see the sights. We'll come by to hang out later."

"Oh, no. Don't worry! Go enjoy yourselves. Really! There are many things in Waterfall to see. I will wait here for your return! Have fun!" Papyrus beams at them.

"Alright, see you later, Papyrus." The Guardian waves at the skeleton before he and Frisk continue on.


	8. Undyne

When they get back to the SAVE point and the sentry station, where sans is drinking a bottle of ketchup. Frisk uses the SAVE point again before moving to sans.

Sans looks up at the footsteps coming towards his station and sees Frisk in front of The Guardian.

Sans waves to them, "let's hang out again sometime."

Frisk nods happily. "Yeah, that would be fun." The Guardian chuckles. "We're gonna go further into Waterfall, so we'll see you later, sans."

"yeah, 'course. see ya." sans says with another wave. The two walk away, further into the dimly lit cave. Up ahead is a large waterfall with many boulders falling down and flowing past.

"Okay this doesn't look very safe… Here, I have an idea." The Guardian picks Frisk up again. "Hold on." that's all he says before he suddenly teleports over the waterfall with Frisk. He sets them down and they stumble and lean against the wall.

"Sorry, my teleports are more powerful then sans', so it disorients you more." The Guardian gets a surprised look from Frisk. "What? Oh, right. Yep, sans can teleport. Though he calls them 'Shortcuts'. He teleported us to Grillby's earlier. Alright, come on."

The area ahead is narrow and there is a lot of tall grass in the middle. There is a ledge on the left wall about twenty-five feet up.

The Guardian leads Frisk through the tall grass, but stops halfway when he hears something above them. He shushes Frisk before they can question it.

They hear Papyrus speaking. "H… Hi, Undyne! I'm here with my daily report… Uhhh… Regarding those humans I called you about earlier…" Undyne speaks to him, but The Guardian can't hear it.

Papyrus continues. "… Huh? Did I fight them? Y-Yes! Of course I did! I fought them valiantly!" Another pause…

"… What? Did I capture them…? W-W-Well… No. I tried very hard, Undyne, but in the end…" Papyrus sighs. "I failed."

"… W-What? You're going to take the humans' SOULs yourself… But Undyne, you don't have to destroy them! You see… You see…" There's a few seconds of silence, then quiet footsteps.

"… I understand. I'll help you in any way I can." The Guardian's face scrunches up in frustration. He waits for a few seconds in silence… Then makes a hand motion for Frisk to follow him. They crawl forward, but stumble a bit and rustle the grass. They hear loud metallic stomping toward the ledge.

The Guardian quickly turns back to Frisk and stops them just as Undyne looks over the edge with a glowing spear in hand. The armored monster stands there for a moment, looking left and right, before stepping away and walking off.

"You need to be more careful, Frisk." He says as he leads them out the other side of the grass. Suddenly a small, armless, dinosaur monster crawls out of the grass with them.

"Yo… Did you see the way she was starting at you…? That… Was awesome! I'm sooo jealous!" He's practically bouncing.

"Oh, uh… Hello." The Guardian is confused as to where he came from while Frisk just waves and smiles. The young monster waves back, but with his tail.

"What'd you do to get her attention…? Ha ha. C'mon! Let's go watch her beat up some bad guys!" He runs forward and trips, faceplanting on the hard stone. Both The Guardian and Frisk cringe. The monster quickly hops up. "I'm fine!" He calls before running off.

"… Anyways, as I was saying, be more careful, you never know what'll happen. There's a SAVE point over there, you should go use it." The Guardian gives Frisk a concerned look. They look down at their shoes for a moment, then back up to him and nod. **A feeling of dread hangs over Frisk… But they stay determined.**

Ahead is another, smaller, waterfall with four strange seeds and a sign, which reads "When four Bridge Seeds align in the water, they will sprout."

"Bridge Seeds? Is that what these are?" The Guardian motions towards the four seeds. "Well, let's test this out." He says before grabbing one and putting it in the water. It floats to the other side. He grabs the other three and puts them in as well. They align in the water and sprout into large, flat flowers with large leaves going across the entire gap.

He tests the bridge by putting his whole weight onto one flower and it stays completely stable. He walks across to the other side with no problems and since he's much heavier than Frisk, they're a lot more comfortable with walking across. Once they're both across, they turn around just as…

 **Aaron flexes in!** Frisk and The Guardian watch as a muscular sea horse floats over flexing and Frisk's SOUL float out in front of them.

 **ACT, Aaron…** Frisk laughs as they see one of the options. **… Flex.** The Guardian sees this and as Frisk is about to flex, he joins in and flexes with them. **Frisk flexes. Aaron flexes twice as hard. ATTACK increases for the two.**

"Flexing contest? Okay, flex more." Aaron winks at them. Frisk is forced to dodge as large magical flexing arms fly at them. **Aaron is ready for their next flex.** **ACT, Aaron, Flex. Frisk flexes harder. Aaron flexes thrice as hard. ATTACK increases for the two.**

"Nice! I won't lose though." Aaron says with another wink and magic bullets fly at Frisk, though they still dodge. **Aaron is ready for your next flex. ACT, Aaron, Flex. Frisk flexes. Aaron flexes very hard… He flexes himself out of the room!** Aaron just floats away as he's flexing probably harder than he's ever before. **Frisk Won! They earned 0 XP and 30 Gold.**

"That was hilarious." The Guardian laughs. "Come on, let's figure this next room out." The room is very large and has a stream running through it. There are four more bridge seeds in the center.

"Hmm…" The Guardian grabs a bridge seed and places it in the water and it completely ignores the current and floats upstream until it hits the waterfall at the end of the room.

He grabs the other three and places them in the same spot, forming a bridge to get across the water.

Once across, Frisk's phone begins to ring. They answer it and the voice on the other end is loud enough that The Guardian knows who it is immediately.

"Hello! This is Papyrus! How did I get this number…? It was easy! I just dialed every number sequentially until I got yours! Nyeh heh heh! So… What are you wearing…?" Both Frisk and The Guardian are a little shocked. Frisk asks Papyrus why he's asking.

"I'm… Asking for a friend. She thought she saw you wearing a gross bandage. Is that true?" Frisk thinks about their answer and turns to The Guardian with a pleading expression. He shakes his head and mouths 'Say no'. Frisk tells Papyrus that they are not, in fact, wearing a gross bandage.

"So you aren't wearing a gross bandage… Got it! You're my friend, so I trust you one hundred percent! Have a nice day!" Papyrus hangs up and Frisk let's out a sigh of relief.

"Alright, let's go. Hopefully, we won't run into Undyne again." The Guardian leads Frisk to the next room, which is a hallway with several echo flowers. In the middle of the hallway is a telescope and a pathway to the left.

As they walk through, they can hear the whispers of past conversations and wishes through the echo flowers. They walk past the telescope to go down the left path, but find that it is a dead end.

The Guardian sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose as Frisk wanders over to the telescope. They look through and get a great view of the ceiling of the cavern and all of its glowing crystals that flood Waterfall with a dim, blue light.

As they move the telescope around slowly, they stop on a vary large cluster of crystals that glow a bright light blue. It's then they notice black writing on the lens that says 'Check Wall' with an arrow pointing upwards. They bring The Guardian over and have him look through.

"Wait, wha- Wait a minute…" He says, stepping away from the telescope and walking back down the pathway. He looks at the wall and can see large cracks and holes that go all the way through. He turns back to Frisk.

"You might want to stand back a bit." He takes a stance by the wall as Frisk takes several steps away. He raises his fist and brings it back behind his head. With a yell, he smashes his fist into the wall, causing it to shatter into hundreds of pieces that fly across the room… T-The wall, not his fist…

"Well, that was easy." The Guardian brushes off his hand and walks through the newly made hole onto a wooden platform. He motions for Frisk to follow and they move to the east side of the area, where there is a small platform connected by a rope to the other side.

"This should take us across. Here, step on." The Guardian motions toward the platform, standing out of the way. Frisk gives him a confused look.

"This thing isn't big enough to hold both of us. Plus, I can just teleport across." With that, Frisk steps onto the platform, which suddenly starts moving, almost making them fall off. Once over to the other side, Frisk turns around to see The Guardian still standing on the other side. They motion him over, but he does nothing. But when they turn around to look ahead, he's suddenly standing in front of them, making them nearly jump out of their skin. Clutching their chest and breathing heavily, Frisk looks up to glare at him.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't resist." The Guardian laughs. "I won't do it again. I promise."

Moving ahead, there is a long wooden walkway. Though, as they start walking across, they stop as a large spear flies into the ground in front of them and immediately, they know what's coming. The large, black, metal armor of Undyne appears between a couple of pillars on the left, spears in both hands.

"Oh, come on!" The Guardian exclaims, frustrated, but not scared at all. Undyne tilts her head at this, possibly in confusion, though the helmet hides her expression. Frisk, though, is backing away behind The Guardian fearfully. Undyne raises a spear above her head and aims it at him.

"Oh, son of a-" The Guardian stops as he spins around and dodges a glowing spear, picking up Frisk in one fluid motion and sprinting down the walkway. Dozens of spears are launched at them, forcing The Guardian to duck and weave through them. Somehow, even in the armor, Undyne is able to keep up with them.

Eventually, they reach the end of the walkway, where a large area of tall grass is. Undyne leaps onto the walkway with a clang and chases after them into the grass, but loses them. She wanders through until she gets to something and slams her fist down on it. Raising her arm, she sees the small, yellow, monster kid. Throwing her arms up in anger, she turns around and stomps away.

The Guardian slowly stands up and carries Frisk out of the grass, setting them down on the other side. Suddenly, the monster kid rushes out with a huge smile and a bruise on his face.

"Yo… did you see that!? Undyne just… Touched me! I'm never washing my face again…! Man, are you guys unlucky. If you were standing just a little bit to the left…! Yo, don't worry! I'm sure we'll see her again!" The kid runs off, face-planting again, but getting back up and away before The Guardian could say anything.

"How is he happy about that? He just got punched in the face by someone wearing armor…" The Guardian sighs. Ahead is a small room with a SAVE point, an echo flower, a mouse hole, and a small table with… Crystallized cheese?

"Go SAVE… I don't really want to do that again." The Guardian chuckles. Frisk quickly heads over and uses it. **Knowing the mouse might one day extract the cheese from the mystical crystal… It fills Frisk with determination.**

The Guardian begins walking ahead. "Alright, let's get… Moving…" He stops as he sees a strange gray door that looks… Out of place… In a hallway that looks unusually long… For some reason…

"What the…?" The Guardian walks up to the door, investigating it. Frisk walks over, tapping his shoulder. He looks over and they ask him why he's staring intently at a blank wall.

"Can you not see it? The gray door?" When all he receives is a strange look, he thinks he's either hallucinating, or it's some kind of cloaking magic. He raises an open hand to it and gently places his hand against the… Wood? It feels like wood, but also not. It seems to ripple slightly from his touch.

The Guardian sends a small amount of magic through his hand and the door ripples again, but this time, Frisk jumps back, a look of shock on their face.

"Now you see it? It is… Strange… Is it not? Like it doesn't belong here, but at the same time, it kind of does." He says, starting to feel slightly light-headed. He takes a couple of steps back.

"We should probably make sure it isn't dangerous. Would you like to do the honors?" He motions toward the door and Frisk steps in front of it, examining it for themself.

Their hand moves slowly to the handle and they turn it, carefully opening the door. As soon as they open it completely and look inside of a colorless room with something or someone in the back, they hear a pained yell and a thump.

Quickly turning around without closing the door, they see The Guardian kneeling on the ground, clutching his head. He's groaning in pain as Frisk is panicking. Suddenly, he looks up at them.

"Close the goddamn door!" He yells and Frisk rushes over to it and slams it shut. As they do, The Guardian goes unnervingly quiet. His arms drop to his sides and he slowly stands up, his expression lifeless. After a moment of tense silence, he speaks, but not in his own voice, but a deeper, monotone, almost computerized voice.

 _ **"** **Error. Error. System Failure. Initiating System Restart. "**_ He says before his eyes shut and he collapses on the ground.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** _So, two chapters out at once… Feels good. Originally, this chapter and the last were one huge chapter that was over seven thousand words long, but that felt too long, so I split it in half. Also, cliffhangers are fun._


	9. System Restart

**Author's Note:** _I have decided to only leave The Guardian's head up to interpretation. His_ _appearance, apart from his head, will be described in this chapter._

* * *

As soon as The Guardian drops, Frisk rushes over to catch him. They do, but he's too heavy to hold up, so they carefully set him down. They hope that this is some stupid, elaborate prank…

Frisk's eyes widen as they realize he's not breathing. Their eyes swim with tears as all they can think is _'This is my fault…'_ over and over.

Suddenly, The Guardians eyes open again, yet he's still not breathing. Frisk immediately hugs him, hoping that he's back, but then he talks in the computerized voice.

 _ **"** **System Restart Complete. Running Diagnostics… "**_ Frisk moves back as a small ball of light moves out of his chest and floats about a foot above him. A wide beam shoots out of it to the top of his head, then slowly moves down to his feet. When it's done, the beam vanishes and the light floats back into him.

 _ **"** **Diagnostics Complete. WARNING: Inter-Dimensional SOUL Connection Drive: Damaged. Chromic-Titanium Exoskeleton To Organic Matter Converter: Critically Damaged. Automatic Repairing Systems Activated… "**_ There was a short pause where nothing seemed to happen.

 _ **"**_ **…** _ **I.D.S.C.D Repaired. Reinitializing SOUL connection… SOUL Reconnected. C.T.E.O.M.C. Repair Failed. Damage Beyond Repair. Disabling C.T.E.O.M.C… "**_ The Guardian glowed an incredibly bright, light blue and Frisk had to shield their eyes.

Within a couple of seconds, the light dims enough for Frisk to be able to watch, but not enough for them to see The Guardian beneath it. It begins to dim more and they can start to see him, but he looks a bit different.

As the light fades away, Frisk backs up a bit in shock.

The Guardians arms are visible first and now have jet black armor plating, the spaces between which are dark, metallic gray.

Next, his legs become visible. They have the same coloring, but larger plates of armor and large, black, robotic feet. His shoes have disappeared as well… He also seems to have four knees, the lower of which are facing backwards. His chest is the next one to be shown, but his clothing blocks the view of any changes.

His head is the last to become visible and has about the same color of his skin before, but smoother and with lines showing the different pieces of metal that make up his face. His hair seems to have not changed much at all, except for being messy from clutching at his head.

 _ **"** **C.T.E.O.M.C. Disabled. Memory Set #A4G386HJ9 Reactivated. 'The Guardian' Regaining Consciousness in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… "**_ When the countdown is over, The Guardian sits up and gasps loudly before leaning over and coughing up a neon green fluid and breathing heavily.

He leans back and looks at his hands with a shocked expression, examining the way it moves, the feeling it has… Recognition crawls its way into his eyes before he looks down with a half-frustrated, half-depressed expression.

He mumbles and Frisk strains their ears to listen and can just just hear what he says.

"Oh… Right. That happened…" He sighs and rubs his face with his hands, but stops at the unfamiliar feeling. He brings slightly shaking hands back to his side and he slowly stands up.

"… I remember now…" He says quietly. Frisk walks up to him and asks what he remembers.

He scoffs, "Remember how I told you about how I had to lock my SOUL away in a pocket dimension with a weaker connection?" Frisk nods slowly.

"I remember that when I was young and my SOUL had yet to reach those dangerous levels, I had friends, many great friends…" He says solemnly.

"Once it had gotten to that point, I hadn't even realized… Then… Then the next time I used my magic-" He chokes on his words, looking away for a moment and taking a deep breath to compose himself.

"… The next time I used my magic… My SOUL killed them… All of them…" He wipes a couple of tears from his face, chuckling mirthlessly at the fact the he, an android, could shed tears.

"… It damn near killed me too… If some of my people hadn't found me and brought me to our scientists, it would've." He sighs.

"I don't know how I ended up surviving. My SOUL destroyed most of my body. Whatever was left was, for the most part, beyond repair. They kept me in stasis while they built me robotic body that would be much more resilient to that kind of thing than my old body… Once it was built, they used a SOUL transfer device to… Well, transfer my SOUL into the new body." He pauses, the faintest hint of a smile on his face as he saw Frisk listening intently.

He continues after a moment. "I awoke soon after, in complete agony… And they told me what I had to do. I agreed… Perhaps a little too hastily, but whatever. I brought my SOUL to the pocket dimension and locked it there. A couple of centuries later, I was sent here, to protect you, but there was a slight miscalculation with the dimensional rift, as it was not supposed to give me amnesia." The Guardian stops as pain ripples out from his chest.

"Rrgh… God, I hate the Void…" He receives a confused and worried look from Frisk.

"Heh, alright, one: My automatic repair systems don't completely repair anything, just to the point where it won't fail on me. Having mostly functional parts is a rather… uncomfortable thing…" His face scrunches as another wave of pain shoots through him. "Painfully so. I'll have to repair everything myself later."

"Two: That door is a portal to a small section of the Void. It's basically the… Space between dimensions, in a way. It's a vast, empty, dark… Void, hence the name. For some reason though, it seems to disconnect my SOUL from my body. It also breaks random things in my system, apparently it was my exoskeleton converter this time." Yet another surge of pain moves through him and he growls and slams his fist into the nearby stone wall, cracking it.

He slowly sits back down. "… Actually, do you mind if we sit here for a few minutes? My goddamn repair system didn't so a very good job on my SOUL connection drive… I don't think I'll be able to walk very far right now. Give me a minute while I try and fix it myself." Frisk quickly nodded and sat down across from him, hoping that they wouldn't have to continue alone.

"Thank you. Really. I think you're the only real friend I've had in a _very_ long time…" He gives them a small, sad smile.

The Guardian then traces a finger along his chest-plate, leaving a glowing trail behind it. Once he loops around, the part of his chest outlined rises upward a couple of inches, exposing his internals. He takes the plate completely off and sets it on the ground beside him, then reaching in his chest and pulling out a small, glowing, cylindrical device as it is flickers slightly.

He pulls off half of the outer casing, revealing a small, cracked, transparent sphere with a light in it that glows a beautiful shade of green.

"Well, there's the problem. The Celestinium SOUL Containment Matrix is cracked…" Before Frisk can question what that is, he explains. "Celestinium is similar to glass in appearance, but is hundreds of times stronger and has special capabilities, like stopping portals to other dimensions from expanding and stopping any energy exiting them." He holds it up so Frisk can see it better.

"This is the portal to my SOUL. It's bright green because my SOUL is flooding the pocket dimension with a very green energy that I don't remember the name of. Also, I have to be very careful, as no celestinium is in this dimension, apart from this, and can't be produced here as you lack the elements to do so… _And_ it's now slowly releasing a small amount of lethal SOUL energy, so I should _probably_ fix it now." He turns it back to him and carefully takes it out of the shell. He wraps his hands around it and the crack glows and slowly seals.

"That should do it…" He slowly moves the matrix back into its casing and seals it before carefully returning it to his open chest. "Ah, _much_ better…" He takes a slow, deep breath. He grabs the chest-piece on the ground and places it back on, watching as it slowly sinks back down and the outline glows before fading away.

The Guardian raises his hands in front of him and experimentally opens and closes them. A grin crawls its way onto his face and he stands up and walks around in a circle and hopping slightly to get used to his robotic legs again. He walks over to Frisk and holds his hand out to them. They take it and he pulls them up.

"Alright, you might want to back up. I'm going to test out some of my equipment to see if there are any other malfunctioning systems. Some of them are a little dangerous." Frisk nods and takes several steps backwards.

"Alright, let's start with… Basic weaponry." He takes a defensive stance and clenches his hands into fists. Large, incredibly sharp spikes extend out of his upper knees and elbows. Next, his wrists open and small handles move into each hand. When he holds them, menacing sword blades extend out of them and he swings them experimentally. The back of his lower arms open and glowing cylinders extend and produce holographic shields. After an _ever-so-slightly_ maniacal laugh, he retracts everything.

"Now for some long-range weaponry." His hands fold away and retract to reveal large gun barrels. "Heh, alright… Fifty caliber rifles built into my arms… I wonder what type of round they fire…" He opens a barrel and takes one of the rounds inside. "Huh… Armor-Piercing Incendiary Tracer rounds… Impressive." He retracts the guns and his hands return.

"Well, I'm not sure I should test any of the more destructive equipment and everything's working fine so far… We should be able to get going without any problems." Walking back over to Frisk, The Guardian smiles at them.

"I forgot how good it feels to have this much magic and energy coursing through me. Before, it just felt natural. But now that I'm noticing it, I can feel all of it traveling to every part of my body. It's… Empowering…" He begins to walk forward, but stops suddenly and looks back at Frisk.

"I just realized a _potential_ issue… How am I going to explain to everyone we've met so far that I'm actually an android?" He sighs. " _This_ is gonna be irritating."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** _Okay, I've gotta admit, this chapter was mainly to describe The Guardian's new appearance/abilities and reveal some of his past… But on to more important matters, The Guardian's exoskeleton is made out of Chromic-Titanium, a fictional chromium alloy composed of chromium and titanium if you haven't already figured that out…_

 _Also, sorry if the 'Chromic-Titanium Exoskeleton To Organic Matter Converter' doesn't sound very cool. I'm not very good at coming up with cool names for… Well, anything. Probably why I haven't thought of an actual name for The Guardian yet…_

 _Additionally, The Guardian really does have four knees, two rear-facing. The rear-facing ones are not ankles, like in cats. He has ankles at his human-like feet._


	10. Aquamarine

**Author's Note:** _Sorry for the late chapter._ _I'm gonna slow down the updates a little bit. I was in a bit of a rush before to get out some chapters after that break and slowing down would give me some more time to improve on my writing so you guys can enjoy this more._

* * *

Walking through the hallway, there is a slight whir before each step The Guardian takes. Frisk is walking ahead of him, listening to the clank of metal against stone followed by the quiet taps of their feet.

It takes them a minute to notice when their footsteps are the only sound they hear and they turn around to see The Guardian stopped and looking backwards thoughtfully. He turns back around to them.

"Hold on a moment, I'm gonna go hide that door. I don't think I really want some random monster wandering in there and getting trapped in the Void. Especially since I can't go in there to help them. Stay here." He snaps his fingers and tries to teleport away, but he only glows for a second and nothing happens.

"Are you kidding me…?" He mumbles to himself before trying again… And again… Still nothing. He growls in frustration.

"You know what, I'm just walking back. This is ridiculous… Stay here." He turns to walk back, but before he can, Frisk stops him and asks what's wrong.

"I forgot that on top of all of the things the Void already does to me, it also disables my magic for a short time while the connection to my SOUL stabilizes." He sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Frisk nods and he turns and walks back to the door, leaving Frisk by themself in a long, dark hallway. Even the few moments that The Guardian is gone feel much longer here, either from the dark, or the fact that there's a dimensional anomaly nearby.

After a few brief moments, The Guardian walks back, making Frisk jump at the metallic steps that they've only just seem to have noticed, much to their surprise.

"Relax, it's just me. It seems the door just… Disappeared. It shouldn't be a problem. Anyways, let's finally get out of this damn hallway." He says with an almost mirthless chuckle.

Before _too_ long, they've reached the other end. Towards the left, Sans is standing next to a telescope. It didn't seem like he had noticed them… Either that or he just doesn't care that The Guardian is suddenly a robot, but that's highly unlikely.

As they walk up to the skeleton, who finally notices them, he waves at Frisk before looking towards The Guardian, but stops and stares, slack-jawed.

"wha- who… what…?" Sans is shocked by the android now standing before him, stoic as usual.

Before long though, The Guardian's stoic expression falters and he breaks into chuckles at Sans' bewilderment.

"Yep… I'm actually an android… _I_ didn't even really know until just a bit ago." The Guardian scratches the back of his head awkwardly as Frisk giggles at Sans.

"how?" Sans still looks just as surprised as The Guardian's reply doesn't really answer anything.

"Um… Magic? Or incredibly complex technology? Or… Both? I don't really know the specifics on _how_ it works, just that it does." The Guardian shrugs. "I only found out when… Um, nevermind, it's not important." He waves it off.

"okay, i've finally gone insane…" Sans shuts his eye sockets, as if The Guardian will suddenly be "Normal" when he opens them.

It doesn't work.

"You really haven't… I'm actually metal." The Guardian knocks on his head, producing a metallic clank. "I'm also less powerful…" He murmurs frustratedly.

"anyways…" Sans starts, hoping to change the subject. "i'm thinking about going into the telescope business. it's normally fifty thousand gold to use this premium telescope… but… since i know you, you can use it for free. howzabout it?"

Frisk excitedly nods and hurries over to the telescope and looks through it, seeing the cavern's ceiling, full of glowing crystals that fill Waterfall with an ambient light-purple hue… At least, that's what The Guardian can see without the telescope.

Almost immediately, Frisk's eyebrows scrunch in confusion. They pull away and tell Sans that they can only see red through it. He starts laughing and Frisk is only more confused. They turn towards The Guardian and he can see what he was laughing at.

Frisk's right eye is covered in light red ink.

"You've, uh, got red ink all over your eye…" The Guardian points at their face and they touch their face with their finger and see the bright red ink. They groan in annoyance and wipe their eye with their shirt before The Guardian can stop them. He cringes at the red splotch that's on their shirt now.

"Well, at least it's not on your eye anymore… Heh…" Frisk notices the almost blood-like stain on their shirt that's bound to cause some misunderstandings in the future. They cover their face with their hands, embarrassed by their mistake.

"Okay, while mildly amusing, that was not very cool, Sans." The Guardian narrows his eyes at the grinning skeleton.

"what? i thought that was a good joke." Sans' grin seems to get even larger.

"Well, now some people are gonna think that they're bleeding." The Guardian gives Sans a stern look.

"what do you mean? isn't blood dark red?"

"Okay, ignoring the slightly disconcerting fact that you know that, some of it is, yes. But oxygenated blood is light red, Sans." He sighs. "I don't particularly want to explain the human circulatory system just for you to know the shade of red that blood is." He says frustratedly, but noticing Frisk's discomfort in the topic of blood, The Guardian, while confused as to why they're uncomfortable with a conversation about it, doesn't press the matter any further.

The Guardian takes a deep breath. "Sorry, I'm not exactly in the best mood. I'm adapting to being an android again and my magic isn't quite functional at the moment."

Sans shrugs. "eh, 'sfine."

"Anyways, we've still got a long way to go." The Guardian looks to Frisk. "We oughta get going if I'm gonna get this one back to the surface." He chuckles. Sans looks away a bit at that.

"Oh, uh… Sorry." The Guardian remembers that they're stuck down here.

"don't worry about it, guardian." Sans dismisses the topic.

Up ahead, there is a dimly lit, dirt pathway with many echo flowers growing on it. While walking along it, Frisk's phone begins to ring.

"Hello! This is Papyrus! Remember when I asked you about clothes? Well, the friend who wanted to know… Her opinion of you is very… Murdery." Papyrus continues before Frisk can voice their worries. "Well, worry not dear human! Papyrus would never betray you! You said you were not wearing a gross bandage. So of course I actually told her you were indeed wearing a gross bandage!"

The Guardian curses under his breath and Frisk's eyes widen in shock.

"It pained me to tell such a boldfaced lie. But since you aren't wearing a gross bandage, she surely won't attack you! Now you are safe and sound. Wowie… This is hard. I just want to be everybody's friend!" After they say their goodbyes, Papyrus hangs up.

"Oh, goddamnit!" The Guardian hisses. "We told him that specifically so he would tell Undyne that you weren't wearing that. Not that it would particularly make a huge difference, but it could've bought us some time." He sighs. "Let's just hope luck is on our side."

Moving ahead, they find a large room full of water with a small pathway that leads across. As soon as they start walking though, a large pale tentacle pokes out of the water. When they move further, another one pops out and begins to follow them. After a few moments, a large, round, octopus… Thing swam to the surface with huge eyes and a smile.

"Hey… There… Noticed you were… Here… I'm Onionsan! Onionsan, y'hear!" Onionsan seems a little too excited. Frisk waves to it.

"You're visiting Waterfall, huh! It's great here, huh! You love it, huh!" Frisk nods in response. "Yeah! Me too! It's my big favorite." The Guardian isn't quite sure how to react here.

"Even though, the water's getting so shallow here… I, have to sit down all the time, but… He-hey! That's okay! It beats moving to the city! And living in a crowded aquarium! Like all my friends did!" Frisk smiles reassuringly and continues to walk forward and Onionsan follows.

"And the aquarium's full, a-anyway, so, even if I wanted to, I… That's okay though, y'hear! Undyne's gonna fix everything, y'hear! I'm gonna get out of here and live in the ocean! Y'hear!" Frisk is starting to look rather uncomfortable at this point.

"Hey… There… That's the end of this room. I'll see you around! Have a good time! In Waterfalllllllll..." Onionsan sinks back under the water and Frisk breaths a relieved sigh.

Ahead is a circular room with a path to the north and one to the east. But before they can get across the room…

 **Shyren hides in the corner, but somehow encounters you anyway.** Frisk's SOUL floats out in front of them. **ACT, Shyren…** Frisk smiles at the options they have. **… Hum.**

 **Frisk hums a sad song. Shyren follows their melody.** Shyren turns around to look at Frisk. She hums along and magical music notes fly at Frisk and they're forced to dodge.

 **Shyren seems much more comfortable singing along. ACT, Shyren, Hum. Frisk hums some more. Monsters are drawn to the music.** A few other monsters come over to listen to the two humming. The Guardian keeps his guard up. **Suddenly, it's a concert…**

More musical notes fly at Frisk, but they dodge perfectly while still humming. At some point, Sans appeared and started selling tickets made of toilet paper.

 **ACT, Shyren, Hum. Frisk hums some more. The seats are sold out. They feel like a rock star.** A faster set of notes are catapulted towards Frisk, but still, they come out unharmed.

 **The crowd tosses clothing. It's a storm of socks. ACT, Shyren, Hum. Frisk hums some more. But the constant attention… The tours… The groupies… It's all…** An even faster set of notes are launched at Frisk. Yet they're still fine.

 **Shyren thinks about her future. ACT, Shyren, Hum. Frisk and Shyren have come so far, but it's time. They both have their own journeys to embark on… Frisk hums a farewell song.** The fastest and longest set of notes are sent towards Frisk and hey struggle, but eventually come out fine.

 **Frisk Won! They earned 0 XP and 30 Gold.**

Frisk's SOUL floats back into their chest and they wave goodbye to each other as the other monsters walk away. The Guardian walks up to Frisk, clapping.

"Bravo! Amazing." He laughs and Frisk smiles at him. "Let's head north. Maybe there's a way ahead."

They move to the northern room, which consists of a piano and a sign. The sign says "A haunting song echoes down the corridor… Won't you play along? Only the first eight are fine."

"Well, that's kinda creepy." The Guardian takes another look around. "There doesn't seem to be anything else here. Strange…" Soon, they exit the room and move to the east, where they find a statue, sitting in the rain. A rather depressing sight. Up ahead, Frisk finds a bucket full of umbrellas and they grab one and bring it back over to the statue.

After a bit of adjusting, Frisk had put the umbrella over the statue, protecting it from the rain. Frisk smiles fondly and as The Guardian is about to speak, a music box in the statue activates and peaceful music echoes through the caves. Frisk hums along with it. Suddenly, The Guardian gets an idea.

"Ooh! Frisk, follow me. I think I figured out what that sign meant." He leads them back to the piano and he plays the first eight notes in the song from the music box. When he's done, part of a wall slides open, revealing a secret passageway.

"Alright! Let's see what's in here." He walks into the secret room, Frisk trailing behind. Inside is a small, translucent, orange sphere on a pedestal.

"What is that?" The Guardian walks up to it, reading the inscription on the pedestal. It reads, "This is a legendary artifact."

The Guardian carefully reaches for it, but suddenly realizes that he has nothing to carry it with, so he turns to Frisk.

"Do you have any space for this?" They nod and open their backpack, only to discover that their inventory is full of… A sleeping dog? Their carrying too much dog. They take the dog out and set it on the ground beside them and it suddenly wakes up and floats over to the artifact and hovers over it for a few seconds, absorbing it and then floating away through the wall.

"What… The hell… Was that…?"

* * *

 **Author's Note:** _Yes, this chapter's name was a color and water pun. Deal with it._


	11. Something Fishy

Ignoring the strange encounter with the dog, Frisk and The Guardian return to the statue and they stand there, listening to its soothing tune. The Guardian takes a deep, calming breath as the world seems to slow down in this peaceful room. After what seems like several minutes, The Guardian is the first one to speak.

"As… Relaxing this room is… If we don't want to get found by Undyne once again, we should continue on." He places a hand on Frisk's shoulder, giving them a warm smile. They slowly nod and give the statue a wave before following The Guardian out of the room.

Back at the umbrellas and seeing the water raining from the ceiling ahead, Frisk takes one and hands it to The Guardian, who politely declines.

"Do not worry about me, Frisk. While I am an android, I am waterproof. I'll be fine. Besides, I like the rain." He smiles at Frisk as they open the umbrella over their own head and smiling back.

Walking through the rain, The Guardian's pace slow and he reaches outward, palms up, feeling the water drift down his metallic arms. With a content sigh, he catches back up with Frisk in time to see Monster Kid sitting in a small alcove, hiding from the rain. The armless monster can't carry an umbrella.

"Yo, you got an umbrella? Awesome!" He walks over to Frisk, who gives him a welcoming smile, and stands with them under the umbrella. "Let's go!" He doesn't even seem to notice the android until after he gets to Frisk. His eyes widen in excitement.

"Yo! That's so awesome!" He turns to Frisk. "Why didn't you tell me you had a robot? It's so cool! Also, what happened to that other guy?" The Guardian looks at him, confused, and clears his throat.

"Uh, I'm right here. I'm 'that other guy'." He chuckles. "I'm called 'The Guardian'. Nice to meet you… In my actual form." He reaches a hand out before realizing his mistake. But before he can pull away and apologize, Monster Kid shakes his hand with his tail.

"Nice to meet you too, sir!" He says, still in awe.

As the three near a corner, Monster Kid begins to speak about his idol once more.

"Man, Undyne is soooo cool. She beats up bad guys and _never_ loses. If I was a human, I would wet the bed every night knowing she was gonna beat me up! Ha ha." The Guardian can tell that Frisk's smile is a little forced now. He can't really blame them either.

"So, one time." Monster Kid starts again. "We had a school project where we had to take care of a flower. The king – we had to call him 'Mr. Dreemurr' – volunteered to donate his own flowers. He ended up coming to school and teaching the class about responsibility and stuff. That got me thinking… Yo! How _cool_ would it be if Undyne came to school!? She could beat up _all_ the teachers!"

Frisk is getting a little uncomfortable with a talk about Undyne. They just give him a thumbs-up and a forced smile. He doesn't seem to notice their discomfort.

"Um, maybe she wouldn't beat up the teachers… She's too cool to ever hurt an innocent person!" He says with confidence.

"If only you knew what she's doing now…" The Guardian murmurs, too quietly for Monster Kid to hear, but Frisk catches it.

Soon, they get a nice view of a large castle in the distance and all of the sparkling crystals on the ceiling. Between them and the castle is a large body of water, shimmering in the blue glow.

Reaching the end of the path, they find another bucket of umbrellas, in which Frisk returns theirs. Ahead is an eight foot wall, a path continuing ahead. The Guardian walks up to it, examining it. He looks to Frisk.

"Here, I'll lift you up." Frisk nods and he picks them up by the waist and sets them down atop the wall. He turns to Monster Kid, offering to lift him up as well.

"Yo, you go on ahead. Don't worry about me. I'll head another way." He waves with his tail before running off in the opposite direction and face-planting. A quiet 'I'm fine!' could be heard as he got up and left.

From where they now stand, a music box could be heard in the distance, echoing through the caves. Ahead is a SAVE point.

"Alright, go SAVE. I'm willing to bet quite a lot of gold that we haven't seen the last of Undyne." He motions toward it and Frisk approaches the sparkling star.

 **The serene sound of a distant music box… It fills Frisk with determination.**

They approach a very long, wooden pathway. The Guardian Raises his guard and, to his satisfaction, a significant amount of his magic has returned to him… He puts a hand on Frisk's shoulder and stops them.

"Hold on. Last time we went onto a platform like this, Undyne showed up. Let me prepare." Spike extend from his elbows and knees, he begins to glow a dim green with defensive magic, and he turns around, away from Frisk.

"Time to test out another weapon." He grins, almost maniacally, but Frisk can't see it. He cracks his knuckles… Somehow… He takes a deep breath in and breaths out as hard as he can, producing a large jet of flames from his mouth.

"Oh, hell yeah! Fire-breathing!" Frisk looks at him, eyes widened, half shocked, half in awe. The Guardian snaps his fingers and his shields activate. He starts towards the platform, but stops and turns to Frisk.

"Stay behind me. We don't know how she'll attack us this time. Stay alert." He slowly walks out onto the platform, Frisk right behind him. After walking for a short while, they notice a second, lower, platform. They stop as they start to hear something… Loud, rhythmic, clanking… Sure enough, the armored captain steps onto the second platform from the darkness.

The Guardian turns to face her, shadows covering his intimidating stare.

"… Took you long enough… You're not very subtle with your ambushes…" His voice is low, a threatening, slightly mocking tone. He lets out a chuckle that could send a chill up even the toughest of spines.

"Y'know, I'm not very appreciative of how you've been treating us." Once Undyne can get a good look at his new appearance, she takes a half-step back and tilts her head in confusion, but says nothing.

"Like my new look? I know I do…" His stare turns to a glare. "We're going to continue on our way. You will not stop us, Undyne. I will not harm you if you try, but know that your attempt will be unsuccessful." He turns away and positions Frisk on his left, shielding them from Undyne. He begins to walk forward, but stops as multiple spots on the ground begin to glow blue before large spears stab upward, disappearing a second later.

"I see how it is… Can't let us leave? It's your 'Duty' to capture a human?" He mocks her, turning to face his adversary.

"Heh… Good luck." There's an unspoken challenge in his words, one that Undyne does not intend to fail. Before she can react, The Guardian retracts his spikes and shields, lifting Frisk up and taking off sprinting, even faster than last time as his second set of knees give him an extra boost with each step.

As The Guardian jumps and dodges out of the way of dozens of spears, he also has to figure out what path to take in the many branching pathways on the platform. Luckily, while he dodges, his scanners show a map of the platform, highlighting a clear path through. Undyne is barely able to keep up.

Unfortunately, soon they reach the end of the path, a long drop ahead.

"Goddamnit! A dead-end!" The Guardian practically screeches to a halt. He sets Frisk down before turning around to face Undyne, who's now in front of them. "Stay behind me."

He takes a few steps towards the captain. His dim green glow shifts to a dark red. His expression turns sinister in an attempt to ward Undyne off.

… It doesn't work…

"So… This is it, huh? No more running from you." He almost sounds excited, as though he was just _waiting_ for an excuse to break a few bones…

He cracks his neck.

Before he's able to do anything though, his attention is drawn to the sound of a materializing spear to the right. He's unable to stop it from slicing through most of the wooden path several feet ahead of him. His eyes widen in shock as he realizes what she was trying to do.

He reacts quickly, turning around to grab Frisk just as the pathway drops. They both fall into the darkness below, their surroundings becoming darker, darker, yet darker as they continue to fall into the unknown… Time seems to slow down drastically and Frisk's screams of terror are drowned out by the emptiness.

The Guardian spins so that he's underneath Frisk, planning to soften the impact.

The shadows seem to fade slightly, enough for The Guardian to be able to see where they're landing. Below them is a pile of trash, but The Guardian can see large sheets of scrap metal throughout it. Landing on that, even from on top of him, would almost certainly kill or seriously injure Frisk.

He's not willing to take that risk.

He sees that there is water around the scrap pile and he tosses Frisk away from them, despite their struggles to return to him.

Time seems to return to normal speed and Frisk, luckily, fell into water with soft garbage at the bottom, dislodging it and floating Frisk back to the surface. They were knocked unconscious.

The Guardian… Was not so lucky.

He smashed into a large, sharp pile of metal, several pieces stabbing straight through his body. Being an android, he wasn't able to be knocked out, only shut down when he wanted to be. He cried out in pain as he slowly dislodged himself from multiple chunks of metal and climbed off of the pile, only to fall face-first onto rocks.

He slowly and carefully gets up, limping over to Frisk.

"Frisk! Are you alri-" He coughs loudly and painfully, some sparks and green fluid coming out of his mouth.

"Frisk?" He shakes them, but they don't get up.

"Oh, shit! Frisk!" He checks to make sure their still breathing and, fortunately, they are. He lightly taps their cheek. "Frisk, wake up. Come on, wake up. You have to get up!"

They begin to stir.

"Come on… Come on… Yes, that's it, wake up." He checks them for injuries… But other than small cuts and bruises, they're mostly fine. He lifts their head to check for any fractures and they only have some cuts on the back of their head, which are bleeding, but those can heal.

They open their eyes.

"W-What happened…? Where a-am I…?" Frisk groans and wipes their face with their hands.

"Frisk! You're alright. You're fine. We fell… A long way. You might have a concussion." He lets out a relieved sigh before they look at him and they stare in shock.

Confused, The Guardian looks at himself and sees several holes through his arms, legs, and torso, all sparking slightly.

"I'm fine… Don't worry about me. I can repair myself." He carefully helps them stand back up. Once they can stand on their own, he steps away and runs a diagnostics on himself. Luckily, no vital systems were damaged.

Frisk stumbles slightly, but they prop themself against a wall. When they look back at The Guardian, who's now looking to their left, they gasp in surprise as they see a ghostly figure wielding a knife behind him.

He turns to look at them, worried, and the ghost stays hidden from his view.

"What happened? Are you alright?" They point over his shoulder, fear spread across their face.

He slowly turns around and sees what Frisk was scared of. A ghost that looks similar to them, but with red, glowing eyes and a maniacal grin on their face. It has a large, black knife that has black smoke drifting off of it. The Guardian takes a step back and takes a defensive stance.

"Look, I don't know who the hell you are, but we've had a pretty crappy day and would rather not get attacked _again_. So if you would leave us alone…" He reaches out and tries to put a hand on their shoulder to lead them away, but his hand just phases through it.

"What the hell?" He looks at his hand with a shocked expression, then to Frisk. When he looks back to the phantom, there is a sudden, immense pain that erupts from his chest.

He slowly looks down to see the black knife impaled straight through his chest…

… Right into his SOUL Containment Matrix…

" _ **Warning! Critical Damage To SOUL Containment Matrix! Dimensional SOUL Portal Breached! SOUL Exposed To Extreme Levels Of Void!"**_ The voice seems to come from his chest.

" _Void-infused knife… Fun… Isn't it?"_ The ghost laughs. _"I'm Chara… Nice to meet'cha!"_

" _ **Destroying Portal To Prevent Further Damage!"**_ Terror spreads across The Guardian's face.

"NO!" He screams as the pain increases exponentially and the room is bathed in a blinding white light from his chest before an explosion catapults everything away, throwing Frisk into a wall.

They are plunged into darkness as they lose consciousness once again…

* * *

 **Author's Note:** _Yay! Cliffhangers!_


	12. Heartless Simulation

**[… A Few Hours Later…]**

" _ **Initiating Start-Up Sequence…"**_ Quiet whirring comes from The Guardian's chest as he twitches, eyes opening shortly after.

" _ **Warning! SOUL Connection Inactive! Magic Reserves: Empty. 'The Guardian' Missing. Initiating Emergency Personality Protocol: 'The Guardian'…"**_ The Guardian quickly gasps deeply and sits up straight. He groans in pain and reaches for his chest, but his hand just moves through it. He looks down to see a large hole where his SOUL Containment Matrix used to be.

"… Oh, god… My… SOUL… It's gone…" He stares at his chest for a bit, not quite believing what happened, but soon his shock is quickly replaced by anger. He painfully stumbles over to the metal pile and rips the biggest piece out.

"Rrragh!" He angrily flings it across the room, pinning it into the wall.

" _Son_ of a _Bitch_!" He yells before slamming a fist into the wall beside him, cracking it from his inhuman strength. "All of my magic is _gone_!"

If he was this angry with his SOUL, which supplies his magic, anything nearby would've been incinerated, metal and rock would've melted into puddles of molten waste. Organic materials or beings would've been immediately vaporized…

He moves to the middle of the room and yells up into the darkness, flames erupting from his mouth and into the shadows, illuminating the stone walls.

He stomps over to the still unconscious Frisk and, despite his anger, gently picks them up, walking away.

There's a SAVE point ahead. After a moment of thought, The Guardian experimentally places his own hand onto it.

 **The waterfall here seems to flow from the ceiling of the cavern… Occasionally, a piece of trash will flow through… And fall into the bottomless abyss below. Viewing this endless cycle of worthless garbage… It fills The Guardian with determination.**

His eyes widen in shock as he realizes that he just used a SAVE point. Suddenly, he is filled with a… Powerful feeling… Not magic, but… Determination?

"So this is what that feels like, huh? I don't even know how I can still _see_ the SAVE points… I shouldn't even be able to use it anyways… Maybe I'm connected to Frisk's SOUL…? I don't know… My SOUL is gone… Speaking of which, that _bitch_ Chara is going to _die a slow, painful death…_ " His anger doesn't subside… In fact, it seems to be even stronger now. He stomps ahead.

He walks past more trash, ignoring a dummy sitting in the water.

Once he's several feet past the dummy though, its eyes suddenly get much more life-like… And very angry. It sinks underwater and pops back up in front of The Guardian. The dummy glares at him.

"Hahaha… It's just like you to run away. I am a ghost that lives inside a du-"

"And _I'm_ a guy who doesn't care who _you_ are…" The Guardian interrupts. The mad dummy's glare intensifies, but before he can speak, The Guardian continues.

"Now, I've got the feeling that you're gonna try and stop us because of some ridiculous reason." He turns and gently sets Frisk down on some trash. He turns back, cracking his knuckles.

"… And you'd better get out of my way… I'd rather not waste my time figuring out a way to kill a ghost… But I can sure as hell destroy its body…" He threatens, his expression twisting into a piercing scowl. The dummy laughs.

"And exactly _how_ are you gonna do that, huh? Glare at me 'till I burn?" He taunts.

The Guardian's scowl becomes a crazed grin, releasing a maniacal laugh.

" **My, what a _wonderful_ idea…"** He lets out another, louder, laugh that echoes through the room before he takes a deep breath.

He breathes a jet of flame around the dummy, narrowly missing his flammable body and scorching him slightly. The dummy seems to become more scared than angry and backs away slightly.

" **Now, as I said… _GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY!_ " **His voice shaking the ground beneath them slightly.

The dummy immediately is rid of all anger, which is replaced my terror. He rushes out of the way and squishes himself against the wall. The Guardian grabs Frisk again and as he walks by, he shoots the dummy a glare.

" **Next time, I won't be so generous."** The Guardian walks away with a deep, menacing chuckle.

As he walks into an opening, he's forced to soften his expression as he sees Napstablook floating across the room. The ghost looks over and recognized the person in his arms. He floats over, casting worried looks at Frisk.

"… oh my… are they okay…?" Napstablook questions The Guardian.

"They're unconscious, but I think they'll be okay… I think. My scanners aren't working at the moment, so I can't see how damaged internally they may be." He sighs, hoping the ghost didn't hear what happened just a moment ago.

"… oh… well, i hope that they're okay…" The ghost looks a little sad. "oh… uh… what's your name…?"

"Hmm?" The Guardian looks up from checking for major injuries on Frisk.

"Oh, uh, I'm 'The Guardian'. Nice to meet you, Napstablook." He answers, but it seems to confuse the ghost.

"how… how do you know my name…?" At his question, The Guardian realizes his mistake.

"Uh… That's a very long story that I don't particularly have time to explain, sorry." He gives Napstablook an apologetic look.

"it's alright… oh… um… i'm going to head home… feel free to 'come with' if you want… but no pressure… i understand if you're busy…"

The Guardian forces a small smile.

"Sure. I need to rest and repair myself. Frisk is going to have to wake up soon. Thank you." His forced smile is replaced by a real one.

"… you're… welcome…" The ghost seems a little uncomfortable with the 'thank you'. "… oh… my house is up here…" He floats over and goes inside. The Guardian is about to follow, but stops when he sees another SAVE point. He uses it.

 **The Guardian feels a calming tranquility. He's filled with determination.**

He takes a deep breath and after the rush of determination, a soothing feeling washes over him, smothering his rage… Mostly.

He moved ahead and approached Napstablook's house. Which was a small, blue, almost ghost-shaped house next to a very similar, but pink house. He twisted the knob, turning around to push the door open with his back. As he walks in, Napstablook turns around from his computer.

"… oh… you really came… sorry, i… wasn't expecting that… it's not much, but make yourself at home." The ghost awkwardly shifts in place. The Guardian smiles at him.

"Thank you very much for the hospitality, Napstablook." His smile slightly falters when he notices the lack of chairs… Or really anything to sit on. He gently lays Frisk down on the wooden flooring. Suddenly realizing just how much pain he's really in from his open chest, The Guardian slumps down next to Frisk with a thump.

"Ouch…" He cringes as he actually gets a good look at his wound… And the wall through it…

Wires are sparking, tubes are broken, metal is bent and broken… And he feels… Empty. Like his emotions were stripped away from him… Like… Like…

 _Like his SOUL is missing…_

Of course, he still seems to have emotions, but those are just simulated ones… _He's_ simulated…

He quickly gets to work on himself to distract his tired mind from that thought. He pulls off his tattered, burned shirt to get a better look at the damage on his chest, he cringes and decides to start on the smaller wounds.

His right index finger folds away into a small soldering iron. He starts to repair connections between wires in his smaller injuries. After each one, he lets the Auto Repair System replace the damaged exoskeleton.

Finally, he gets to the hole in his chest. He thinks for a minute before working on small connections in outer edge of it. When he realizes that it's all that he can do, he has the A.R.S. slowly rebuild it. It'll take much longer than if he could repair it himself, but he doesn't have the materials to reconnect everything across the gap.

He doesn't put his shirt back on, as it's too damaged to last very long anyways.

Frisk rolls onto their side, snoring softly and mumbling some incomprehensible words occasionally. The Guardian chuckles.

"Well, at least sleeping is better than unconscious…" He turns to Napstablook.

"Hey, do you mind if we stay until Frisk wakes up? I'd feel more comfortable if they woke up with a couple of familiar faces."

"… i don't mind…" Napstablook answers slowly.

The Guardian sighs.

"Thank you."

 **[… One Hour Later…]**

The Guardian hadn't moved at all while he waited for Frisk to wake up, Napstablook remained at his computer.

Soon, Frisk rolls onto their back, taking a deep breath and slowly opening their eyes, then promptly shutting them from the light. They slowly sit up, their face scrunched up in pain.

"Frisk!" The Guardian grabs their shoulders, their eyes slowly opening to see an unfamiliar location. Panic starts to rise in their chest. Apparently it was visible on their face as The Guardian quickly spoke up.

"Calm down, calm down. We're in Napstablook's house… In Waterfall." Panic quickly turns to shock as they notice the gaping hole in his chest.

"I'll be fine, don't worry about me." They cover their open mouth with a hand as they realize something.

"W-Wasn't your… S-SOUL thing t-there…?" They point to his chest. He sighs.

"… Yes… It was… My SOUL is…" He hesitates, looking away for a second.

"… It's gone…"

The Guardian looked down, his face twisted in sorrow.

"… I'm not even really here… I'm just a simulation of The Guardian's personality… The real me is either dead or stuck in an endless limbo in the tiny pocket dimension my SOUL may or may not be in…" Frisk's expression shifts from panic to shock.

"… My magic's gone too… I've just got any weaponry built into my body left… Which is _nothing_ compared to the power I held not even a day ago… I used to be one of the strongest of my people… Stronger than the combined force of our entire military… Now I'm no stronger than the weakest of soldiers…" Anger rose in his chest.

"… All taken away at the hands of the _ghost_ of a _child_ with a _fucking knife_!" He holds his face in his hands. He takes deep, calming breaths and clears his throat.

"I'm sorry… I shouldn't have yelled like that…" He apologizes quietly. Letting out a long sigh, he turns to Napstablook.

"I apologize, but I think it might be best if we take our leave… We have rather important…" He hesitates. "… Business elsewhere."

"oh… alright… i guess i'll see you… another time…" The ghost is quiet.

The Guardian stands up, but stumbles back into the wall.

"Oh…" He says blankly as Frisk rushes over, worried. He grunts as he pushes away from the wall.

"My… Power core was destroyed as well, it seems… Luckily, I have reserve power cells, but they seem to be running a _little_ low. Since I'm no longer powered by my SOUL… Heh, this isn't as nice, to say the least."

After some stumbling, they make it back into the open area outside. The Guardian leans against a stone wall.

"… Run diagnostics…" He says to himself.

" _ **Running Diagnostics… Systems Damaged. Power Level: 18%"**_ A voice responds.

"That's… Not great." He turns back to Frisk.

"Hey, uh, sorry about me yelling… When I don't have my SOUL here, I seem to… Lose my mind a little… Not really used to _not_ feeling it's energy all the time… And having such a low power level is not helping."

Frisk waves it off, asking what that voice was.

"Oh, that? I've got an artificial intelligence built into my body. I'm basically a super-computer with-… That's _supposed_ to have a SOUL."

They walk ahead, The Guardian sliding a hand along the wall to keep him standing. They find a door on the left and walk in, hoping to find someone who might be able to help.

Inside, they find an old turtle monster sitting at a makeshift counter with a bunch of junk behind him. Frisk walks in ahead of The Guardian and the turtle looks up, smiling at the new customer.

"Woah there! I've got some neat junk for…" He stops as he sees the damaged android stumble in.

"Oh my, are ya alright there? You aren't lookin' so good."

"Well, apart from the hole in my chest and my power cells running low, I'll be alright. Uh, speaking of which, you wouldn't happen to have any charged cells around, would'ya?" The Guardian chuckles.

"Sorry, I just sold the last one I found to Doctor Alphys." The old turtle gives him an apologetic look. The Guardian shrugs.

"Eh, it was worth a try, heh. Anyways, anything you can tell us about yourself? We're, uh… New around." He smiles.

"Oh, I've been around a long time. Maybe too long. Studying history sure is easy when you've lived through so much of it yourself! Wa-ha-ha!" The turtle laughs. "My name's Gerson." He holds out a hand and The Guardian shakes it.

"I'm The Guardian. Now, before you ask, I don't really have a name. I just go by my title." He motions towards Frisk.

"This is Frisk. I'm their guardian." Frisk waves at Gerson.

Noticing a familiar emblem, the same one that was everywhere in the Ruins, Frisk asks about it. Gerson seemed a little shocked.

"Eh? You don't know what that is? What are they teachin' you kids in school nowadays…? Wa-ha-ha! That's the Delta Rune, the emblem of our kingdom. The Kingdom… Of monsters. Wa-ha-ha! Great name, huh? It's as I always say… Ol' King Fluffybuns can't name for beans!"

"What does it mean?" The Guardian asks.

"That emblem actually predates written history. The original meaning has been lost to time… All we know is that the triangles symbolize us monsters below, and the winged circle above symbolizes… Somethin' else. Most people say it's the 'Angel' from the prophecy…"

The Guardian raises a metallic brow. "What prophecy?"

"Oh yeah… The prophecy. Legend has it, an 'Angel' who has seen the surface will descend from above and bring us freedom. Lately, the people have been taking a bleaker outlook… Callin' that winged circle the 'Angel of Death'. A harbinger of destruction, waitin' to 'free' us from this mortal realm… In my opinion, when I see that little circle… I jus' think it looks neat! Wa-ha-ha!" The old turtle laughs and The Guardian looks away in thought.

 _'I know of a few who might call me a 'Harbinger of Destruction'… Not that I blame 'em. Though I think I might be the 'Guardian Angel' for the true Angel from the prophecy…'_

 _'Frisk.'_

* * *

 **Author's Note:** _Yesterday (May 2) was my Birthday! Huzzah! *Ahem* Anyways, I know the ending may have been a little weird, but I had reached over 2,000 words and that's usually where I stop. I'll get to work on the next chapter right away._


	13. IMPORTANT UPDATE

So… Um, Hi… It's, uh, been a while, hasn't it? Over half a year to be… Um, exact…

I wanted to say that I'm sorry.

I'm sorry for being too lazy to continue.

I'm sorry for not even trying.

I'm especially sorry for leaving off with a "Major Update Coming Soon!" thing, and letting you guys think that a chapter was coming.

I tried to write chapter thirteen, and don't get me wrong, I liked how it was going, but I just kinda… Stopped.

I don't really have an excuse.

So… I've come to a decision… One that is likely necessary at this point, since it's been so long.

I'm going to reboot the story. There's going to be some significant changes to the beginning of the story and The Guardian himself.

Now, don't get your hopes up. You've seen how consistently I publish new chapters. I can guarantee that the reboot will continue until the end of the Undertale game, but how long that will take is unknown to me. I can't promise consistency, and chapters will definitely come out rather slowly. I think what I'm going to try to do is work on the story for about an hour a day. I don't even know sort of when I might get them out. _Maybe_ two per month towards the beginning while I get back into the swing of things, and it _might_ start to go faster after that, but I doubt it.

What I did was unacceptable and I will not allow that to happen again. I will deliver, albeit, slowly.

Again, I am so, _so_ sorry. I'll try to be better.

The reboot should probably be published in 3-5 days.

Have a wonderful, beautiful day.


	14. It's Reboot Time!

Alright! Chapter one of the Reboot is officially up, and we're moving over there!

I'll leave this story up for a few weeks, just so all of you can get to read this. But at some point, I'm going to remove it, since I won't be working on it anymore, and I don't want people to read an unfinished story just to have to read it again.

Remember, the Reboot should be easily accessible from my profile.

I hope to see you all there! :D


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